Applied Starlight
by Unknownlight
Summary: A pony wakes up in an empty void and discovers that it is infinitely malleable to her whims and desires. A loving tribute to pretentious, incomprehensible mind screws.
1. Nothing

**This story was originally published on Fimfiction, and I highly encourage reading it there. For one, there you can see the full-sized version of the awesome custom cover art for this story. Two, the last chapter doesn't work properly on FFN, so you have to go there to read the ending anyway.**

**Please go to: ********tinyurl(period)com/AppliedStarlight**

* * *

**APPLIED STARLIGHT**

_A story about the creation of the universe. _

_Oh, and Equestria, too, but that was more of a side-effect._

* * *

There was nothing.

She wanted to say that _surrounding_ her was nothing, but the nothing was so prevalent that it even seemed to consume her idea of spacial awareness. She wanted to say that in front of her was nothing, but the very concept of "in front" didn't really exist—there was no space in nothing. Any possible description she could think of didn't quite describe the _extent_ of nothing she was experiencing.

Thus: there was nothing.

…No, no. That doesn't quite work. "Was" implies a definite and specific moment in time, taking place in the past. There is no time in nothing. There must be a more accurate way to describe it.

There is nothing.

No no no! "Is" is just as bad as "was"! It still implies a singular moment of time. There is no time in nothing.

There was, is, and will be nothing.

No! Why could she not wrap her mind around the concept of time not existing? There clearly was no time, yet she still tried to describe the lack of existence as something that had some sort of past, present, and future. She tried one more time:

Nothing.

Aha! Perfect.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing.

…

_I wonder if one can get bored of nothing, considering there's nothing to get bored of?_

Nothing.

Nothing.

_How can I be here if there is nothing?_

Nothing.

Nothing.

_Maybe I am the nothing. Maybe I believe that there is nothing, and so nothing._

Nothing.

Nothing.

_I've said that so many times it's starting to sound weird. Is it actually a real word?_

Nothing.

Nothing.

_If I'm creating the nothing by believing in nothing, maybe if I believe there is something then there will be something. Worth a shot, at least._

Something.

Something.

Something.

Something.

Out of the nothing came the sudden existence of an uncountable number of giant turtles all piled on top of each other leading infinitely in every direction at once. She was lying on top of one of them: a giant, newly-born baby turtle. The sudden shock of something rather than nothing broke her concentration on something; the turtles quickly disappeared and the nothing returned.

…_Well then. That was weird. Uh, let's not do that again._

Nothing.

Nothing.

The turtles existed _beyond_ nothing, that was certain. It was as if they were a something that _all _somethings were part of. They were beyond _everything._ In fact, she had the sneaking suspicion that the turtles had something to do with why this nothing was here, but she couldn't figure out why she felt this.

Nothing.

Nothing.

The important thing, though, was that apparently she _could_ control what existed in this nothing. The nothing could be molded to what she wanted; it wasn't just nothing unto itself. Perhaps she had to be more specific, rather than just thinking "something". Start with the basics.

Spacetime fabric.

Spacetime fabric.

Spacetime fabric.

Spacetime fabric.

And suddenly there was space and time.

Well, that's convenient.


	2. Spellbook

"_Spiiike. Time to get up!"_

"_Uh don wanna."_

"_Rise and shine! It's morning and it's time to face another day!"_

"_Nngh, stop bein' all cheery, Twi. You're jus' as tired's I am. Uh can hear it in your voice."_

"_Spike. Get up."_

"_Yuh can't make me."_

"_Ugh! Fine, be that way. I'll be downstairs when you stop being such a baby."_

—

"_Twilight, what is that?"_

"_Ish a book, Shpike."_

"_Well, yeah, I can see that, but why are you carrying it in your mouth instead of your magic?"_

"…_It's supposedly the spellbook of an ancient pegasus mage named Starshine. It was found when the books from the Castle of the Two Sisters were moved here."_

"_What do you mean by 'supposedly'?"_

"_The book is protected by powerful magic that prevents the reader from deciphering its contents, so we don't actually know what it is."_

"_So… it could just be an ancient shopping list that someone used to practice powerful magic on once?"_

"_Heh, could be. Anyway, I was asked to take a look at it. I'm familiar with a much larger variety of spells than the average mage, so my task is to try to identify what type of spells were used in the enchantment and send my findings to the Royal Canterlot Archive."_

"_You're going to try to break the enchantment yourself, aren't you?"_

"…_Yes. Yes I am."_

"_Awesome. If anypony can do it, you can. Oh yeah, you still haven't answered why you were holding the book in your mouth when you came in."_

"_Huh? Oh, yes, right. To prepare for the analysis, I had to strip the book of all residual magic. When you do tests like this, you first have to remove every possible variable. Holding it in a levitation field right after would defeat the purpose."_

"_Huh. Okay. Who's 'Starshine', anyway? I don't think I've ever heard you mention her before, and you ramble on about pretty much every ancient historical figure."_

"_That's because there's almost no information on her. Previously, all that we knew about her was that she was Star Swirl the Bearded's mother, and that's only because of Star Swirl's own writings. That's why the discovery of this spellbook is so exciting! Judging from the strength of the spells protecting this book, magical might must have run in the family, so there very well might be long lost magic within these pages! Think about it! A hundred and forty-three pages worth of ancient, undiscovered writings!"_

"_Huh."_

"…_You're not even interested, are you? I don't even know why you bother asking me these sort of questions in the first place if you're not actually curious."_

"_Me neither. Ha, it's your fault, I think. I've lived with you so long that you've taught me to question everything even though I don't care about the answers!"_

"_Ha ha, Spike."_


	3. Space

So. Time and space.

Interesting.

Well, actually, no. It wasn't particularly interesting. In fact, it was rather dull. Nothing was at least a novel experience. This was…

She looked around at the infinite expanse of white that stretched out around her in every direction.

…Well, it was something.

Something. Not nothing.

Why did she ever think something would be better than nothing?

Well, she regained her sense of direction, at least. And she probably regained her other senses too, not that any of them had any use in an empty void of white.

Was she still herself after being submerged in nothing?

She brought her hooves up to her face and examined them. Yes, she was still a pony. That's good. Her hooves looked normal and fine. What color were they?

…Huh, for some reason it was hard to tell. Whatever.

She looked down at the rest of her body. Yes, she was definitely a pony, all normal and regular, and yet… what color was she? Why couldn't she tell?

In fact, now that she thought about it, the problem wasn't just color. What was her build type? Was she fat or skinny? How old was she? She kept asking herself questions as she examined herself, and found it extremely hard to answer any of them. She seemed to have… every attribute at once? Or maybe none of them at all?

And her cutie mark… she just couldn't seem to focus on that area of her body, as if she were always looking out of the corner of her eyes.

Huh. Very peculiar.

_I am a superposition. I am a variety of possible events condensed into a single point, and I represent the actions of many. I cannot define myself because that would collapse the wave function preemptively._

Nice try. If that were the case, then how come she was sure she was a "she"? By doing so, she was defining herself, was she not?

…_I still think it's a sound hypothesis._

Yes. With flawed logic and all.

So anyway, what else could she do in a tub of infinite whiteness?

Wait! The ground she was standing on! It was the exact same shade of white as everything else, so the horizon wasn't visible, but she was definitely standing on something, and it was a something that was different than the other somethings!

Questions instantly started running through her mind: _What is the ground? What's it made of? Is it malleable? Is it a flat surface or are there mountains and valleys somewhere out there? Why is there any ground here at all?_

Oddly, despite all four of her hooves having direct contact with the ground, she couldn't quite tell what the ground felt like. Thus, she decided that she would stomp on the ground instead and see if she could tell what type of material the ground might be made of by the resulting effect or sound. She reared up on her hindlegs and stomped.

…Which resulted in her front hooves going straight through where she thought the ground was.

The momentum from this stomp also managed to pull along the rest of her upper body into the sudden crevice. She shrieked involuntarily as she felt herself start to tumble over the edge, horrified by the idea of losing her balance and falling forever through an endless void of white. She scrambled to find footing for her front hooves…

…Which resulted in her front hooves suddenly hitting ground exactly where she _knew_ there was no ground before, below the ground she had been standing on before she tried stomping.

She was in a slightly uncomfortable position now, with her rear hooves standing on ground that was raised a good foot or so higher than her front hooves. She walked around a little bit, trying to find an area with flat ground again, but it seemed like no matter where she went or what direction she walked, her back hooves were always on raised ground compared to her front hooves.

She eventually started to get annoyed by this, and thought that the ground really ought to be flat, like how it was when she first arrived in the void.

The ground obliged, and she suddenly she was on flat ground again.

She tried to make sense of this.

_Right! Of course! This world started as nothing, but then gained time and space because I thought it! There isn't actually ground here, I just figure there **should** be ground here and so that's what I feel. Everything changes depending on what I think._

Ah, so the ground is inconsistent because there's no reference point. Well, that just means a reference point has to be made! Start with the basics, after all.

Horizon.

Horizon.

Horizon.

Horizon.

And then there was a horizon, with the ground whiteness now looking slightly darker than the air whiteness.

She grinned. Progress!


	4. Secret

"_Any progress yet, Twilight?"_

"_On the spellbook?"_

"_What else?"_

"_Eh, not much. I've learned that whoever made this enchantment was a far more skilled and experienced mage than I am."_

"_Well, that's a good thing, right? If Starshine was less skilled than you are, then whatever secret magic or whatever's in there would probably be a lot less impressive, I think."_

"_Not necessarily; strength in one avenue of magic doesn't mean a pony will be strong in others. But yes, it's a good sign. This book is so aggravating, though! It's designed to mess with your magic if you try to break the spell, which means that the more time I've spent trying to figure it out, the more difficult it is to cast proper spells!"_

"_Mess with your magic? How is that possible?"_

"_Sorry, that was poor wording on my part. Hmm… this is difficult to explain properly. Okay, imagine this: there's a target on the wall, and you have to throw a ball to hit the target."_

"_Yeah?"_

"_But while you do this, you're wearing glasses that use mirrors to distort your vision. Everything looks off-center to, say, a few hooves to the left. So, when you throw the ball, it always strikes the wall to the left of the target even though your throw appeared to be perfect. The only way to hit the target is to compensate by deliberately throwing the ball slightly to the right."_

"_That sounds annoying."_

"_It is, but that's not all! Imagine if every time you fail to hit the target, the glasses change and add to the distortion—say, the target looks like it's few hooves to the left __**and**__ a few hooves above where it actually is. It becomes more and more distorted the more attempts you make. Luckily, the book isn't a source of magic itself, so for the distortion framework to run it needs magic to be pumped into it—said magic, of course, comes from the spells used by the pony who's trying to break into the book. If I let it sit for thirty minutes, then the residual magic runs out and the distortion resets, but that's not helpful because it means that after every failed attempt I either have to try to break an even harder lock or wait half an hour before I can try again!"_

"_That… is actually really clever."_

"_Oh, I absolutely agree! It's just hard for me to appreciate it right now."_

"_I wonder what could be so secret that this pony put that much effort into preventing anypony else from reading it?"_

"_That's a very good question, Spike. And the only way to find out is to break the enchantment."_

"_Hah, of course! So, if Starshine was hiding some big, world-ending secret, and anypony who reads it goes mad or brain dead because they can't handle the revelation, the only way for us to find out is if we… read it! If we read it and don't go mad, then it's safe!"_

"_I think you've been reading too many comic books."_

"_Of course, it's not very hard to make __**you**__ go mad. Add a sprinkle of 'tardiness' here… a dash of 'the Princess is disappointed in you' here…"_

"_Hmph. I'm a princess too, don't you forget. Anyway, this book is bugging me, and I'm hungry. I'm going to head over to Sugarcube Corner and get some lunch. Do you want to come, or should I bring something back for you?"_

"_Nah, you can go. I'll stay here, thanks."_

"_Suit yourself. Be back in a bit."_

"_See ya, Twilight!"_


	5. White

So, there was a horizon now. That meant that there was also consistent ground now, which would probably be very helpful.

She examined the ground. While before she couldn't quite tell what the ground was made of, it was very clear now. The ground was made of glass. Specifically, white glass, not clear glass. If it was clear glass then the ground would be the same shade of white as the sky; instead, the glass was clearly a slightly darker shade of white.

Now then, was the glass breakable? She would probably need to know that at some point, so she might as well figure it out now.

Hmm. How would she be able to test whether the glass was breakable without the risk of falling through whatever break she might potentially make? Trying to break the glass with her own hooves was obviously out of the question. And yet…

(She looked around and saw a flat, infinite expanse of white glass stretching out in every direction, with the sky being an equally infinite and expansive tub of clear whiteness.)

…It didn't really look like there was anything she could use to test with. There were exactly two physical objects in existence: herself and the ground. The ground was what she was testing, and she had already decided that she wouldn't use herself to test the ground.

The whole situation felt rather unfair to her. She was a scientist! She shouldn't have to put up with stuff like this!

She took another look around the infinite expanse of white glass.

Glass she created.

She facehoofed.

If she was a scientist, she sure wasn't doing very well at giving scientists a good name.

If she could create something out of nothing by thinking the word "something", then surely she could create an object to test the glass with.

Rock.

Rock.

Rock.

Rock.

A rock materialized out of thin air and tumbled to the glass ground.

(It was at that moment that she became consciously aware that gravity was in effect. She was slightly embarrassed she didn't notice earlier, but, in fairness, it had been strangely hard for her to focus on anything recently. She blamed it on the nothing.)

She walked up to the rock and examined it. She was disappointed to see that the rock was colored white—and not just any white, but the exact same shade of white as the sky. Had the glass not been a _different_ shade of white, the rock would probably be invisible. Between the white glass, the white sky, and the white rock, she was starting to get extremely bored of that color. It didn't help that she still couldn't tell what color pony she was herself.

Anyway, she had a rock now. That meant she could test the strength of the glass. She would throw it as hard as she could against the ground and see what happened. If the glass broke, or cracked, then she'd know she'd have to be careful. If it didn't, then she'd know that, although the glass still might be breakable, it was at least strong enough that she wouldn't have to worry about it for the foreseeable future. Easy.

She knelt down and tried to pick up the rock in her mouth. Unfortunately, the rock was slightly too large for her to get a good grip on it, and, being a rock, she couldn't exactly bite into it either. Next she sat down on her haunches and tried to pick up the rock between her front hooves, which did seem to work well enough at first, but she soon found that this didn't give her a good enough grip to throw the rock with any kind of force.

After the fourth time the rock hit the ground with barely a _plink_, she knew that this wasn't going to work out and she'd have to find another way.

She stared at the white rock against the backdrop of white glass and white sky with aggravation. Why did all the simplest things have to be so difficult lately? Why couldn't the rock just pick _itself_ off the ground?

The rock rose into the air.

She blinked.

Then she realized that the rock was surrounded by a magical aura. A look of recognition flashed across her face, and she lifted a hoof to her forehead to see if she was right.

There was a horn there, surrounded by its own magical aura.

Huh. She was a unicorn. How did she not realize that? How did she not _remember_ that? How could she remember that she was a scientist, but not a unicorn?

Wait a minute…

She twisted her head around to look at her backside.

…Huh. She had wings, too. That's… odd. What were ponies with all the pony traits called again? "All-corns"?

It was something like that.

Taking full advantage of her newly-remembered unicorn powers, she raised the rock high, high into the air—and, since she couldn't see it anymore because of the white-on-white, she also moved it a good five yards away from her. Always good to be cautious.

Once the rock was lifted as far as her magical range would allow, she thrust it down as strong as she could into the glass ground.

She heard a crack.

Which meant a success. Yes!

She gleefully trotted over to where she heard the crack, eager to see the results of her experiment. What she found was that the rock was wedged halfway into the glass—part of it in, part of it out.

This was rather significant. It meant that the glass wasn't a thin sheet over a void, it was thick. It was something that could be dug into, something that probably went down for quite a long way. Like real ground.

_I wonder what the glass looks like beneath its surface? Is it still colored white, or does it look different?_

Well, it wouldn't be hard to find out. She grabbed a hold of the rock with her magic, and forcibly tore the rock out of its spot, wedged in the glass. The moment she did so, the solid glass acted like a liquid, filling up the hole in a circular wave, acting nearly identical—in slow-motion—to how water would react if an object were removed from it.

In a few moments, the waves died down and the glass was back to being flat and solid.

Curiouser and curiouser.

Well, this certainly put a damper on the idea that there might be glass mountains or valleys somewhere out there. But it _did_ introduce the idea of glass waterfalls! And that was equally awesome! If there was an edge to this world, somewhere, and the glass acted like a liquid when faced with physical and geographical abnormalities, then there _must_ be a glassfall somewhere! It only made sense! Clearly!

Now all hyped up on her new theory, she left the rock behind and began walking in a completely random direction, figuring that if she kept walking in a straight line then she should get somewhere _eventually_.

However, after only a few minutes of walking she noticed a slight problem. With pure whiteness on all sides it was rather difficult to know if she was moving in a straight line. There was no context to her walking, nothing visible that she could point out and say, _I'm going over __**there**__._ She just had to walk and hope for the best.

After about an hour of walking into the white, she was starting to feel a strange feeling of discouragement. With nothing ever changing from one step to the other, her brain was starting to think that she was walking on a treadmill or something; it was as if she wasn't actually moving. It was oddly hard to stay motivated walking when your brain was convinced you were standing still. Still, she pushed on.

After about three hours of walking into the white, she became consciously aware that she wasn't getting tired, or hungry, or thirsty. A small part of her found that to be very odd. The part in control, however, didn't really care, so the observation fell on deaf ears.

After about five hours of walking, she was feeling very tired. Not tired in a physical sense, of course, but just tired of walking. One can only walk for so long into an unchanging void before they just feel too sick of it to go any further, no matter how determined they are.

Of course, it was at the moment she was going to sit down and give up that she saw an irregularity in the distance.

It was very far away. Very, very far. Something very, very small, too. But being on a flat, unchanging surface, even if for not very long, tends to train one's eyes to catch irregularities no matter how small.

A goal! A direction! Something _different!_

With renewed energy, she set off at a brisk pace toward the object. What could it be? Was there more of it? Was it part of the white void, or something else? Was someone else here? Did _they_ create the object? Was it an object at all? So many questions filled her head, and she was so eager to find answers that she found herself at a sprint before long. Even so, it took her a full ten minutes to reach the object.

Her pace slowed to a crawl as she reached the final few yards, feeling too anxious and eager to go any faster. She purposefully looked away from the small object as she neared it, not wanting to see what it was until she was close enough to see it clearly.

She waited until she was right on top of it, and then she looked down with eager eyes.

It was a rock.

A white rock.

That looked an _awful lot_ like the one she had left behind nearly six hours ago.

A part of her said, "Y'know, I really should have expected that. It's rather obvious, in retrospect."

The rest of her—the part that _wasn't_ all nice and logical—slumped down on the ground and stared blankly into space.

It wasn't fair.

It wasn't fair, not at all.

Hope couldn't be raised like that, and then dashed to pieces so quickly. It just couldn't.

A terrible anger began to burn inside her, and she wanted to hurt the rock, hurt it very badly. Again, part of her said, "Why would I do that? The rock's done nothing wrong."

The rage was already boiling over, though, and sanity has little control over passion. Her face contorted in a frenzied fury; she picked up the rock with her magic and began to slam it against the ground as hard as she could, over and over again. Little shards of glass scattered from the impact zone in every direction, each one settling on the ground for only a moment before melting away. All of her aimless rage came pouring out all at once, and she continued to slam the rock against the ground for many, many minutes, not stopping until the hole she had created was a good three feet deep and large enough to fit a pony.

Trembling, she placed the rock down and crawled into the hole, snuggling into the sharp edges of glass that cut into her skin and made her bleed white blood.

_Pain. Something new._

It was her own little bed of needles. A constant discomfort to make her forget about the sameness everywhere else. An irregularity. Her own irregularity, stained with her own liquid life. A home.

The part of her that remembered what a home was said that it was somewhere you rested after a long day's work. She supposed that fit well enough. With a sigh, she closed her eyes and tried to get some rest.

Very soon she opened her eyes again when she realized she no longer felt shards of glass poking into her skin.

The hole was gone. She was lying down on flat white glass that stretched forever in every direction. She had no injuries. Beside her was a rock.

She tried to get angry again, but instead she found that a lone tear had begun to run down her cheek.

The tear succumbed to the force of gravity and dripped off her face, falling through the air toward the ground.

The tear hit the ground and the glass rippled like a drop of rain hitting a lake, and then the glass was dry and flat again.

She continued to let tears escape, and coupled it with the sound of sobbing in depression and desperation. She was shaking too badly to even stand up.

_This isn't fair._

There is nothing unfair here.

_Where am I?_

Alone, just like you wanted.

_Why am I here?_

Because you created here.

_I don't want to be here._

Of course you do.

_I want to go home._

This is your home.

_Where are my friends? I want my friends!_

You'll see your friends soon.

_Why can't I remember anything?_

What is there to remember?

_I hate it here!_

You'll love it here. You just haven't _seen_ here yet. Turn on the lights.

…

She opened her eyes. Around her was bleak, infinite whiteness. Beside her was a rock. There was no evidence of her tears. She was glowing.

She was glowing?

Huh.

She glowed with a black light. She could feel the emotions that the black light was powered by—the feelings of rage and despair and depression… but most of all, the want, the _need_, to go home. To see life again, even if she couldn't quite remember what life was.

The whiteness of this world was just as dark and concealing as the blackest of nights, it just wasn't as noticeable as being such at first. But it was very much true. She had been wandering about in the white-colored dark for a long time without realizing it, but now she did. She would remove this darkness.

_I wish to leave here._

_I wish to remember._

_I wish to live again._

The black glow started becoming brighter. She was too focused to notice.

_I wish for life._

_I wish for light. _

_I wish,_

_I wish,_

_**I wish…**_

She tried to keep her eyes open, but the glow became brighter and brighter and brighter until she was finally blinded by black.


	6. Everfree

"_Heehee, for a pony trying to join the Wonderbolts, you sure have a sweet tooth!"_

"_Lay off me, Twi. You need a lotta energy to be as awesome as I am."_

"_Think about it. If the Wonderbolts had to choose between you and a pony who __**doesn't**__ occasionally eat cake for lunch…"_

"_Oh, shuddup."_

"_Yeah, Twilight! Rainbow's the most awesomest flyer in Equestria! I bet she could even fly all the way up to the moon—and it's made of cheese, so then she could eat it! No, wait, Rainbow, I have an even better idea! Fly up there and steal the moon and bring it back down here 'cause I wanna try the moon cheese too, and we can make cupcakes with it by taking Mrs. Cake's red velvet recipe and replace the cream cheese with moon cheese and then add some starlight sprinkles and cosmic caramel—"_

"_Pinkie."_

"—_and meteor marshmallows and… Yes, Twilight?"_

"_The sandwiches and the apple pie slice I ordered?"_

"_They're in the bag in front of you, silly."_

"_How—?"_

"_So, like I was saying, there's no __**way**__ the Wonderbolts would ever choose another pony over Rainbow Dash with all the awesome stuff she can do, even if she eats cake for lunch every once and a while."_

"_Uh, yeah. Thanks for the vote of confidence, Pinks."_

"_Of course, Rainbow! You know that I'll always vote for confidence, because if I wasn't confident I wouldn't be able to pull off half the parties I do now, and if we had less parties—_

"_Uh, Rainbow, is it just me, or is Pinkie acting even more random than usual?"_

"—_of course ponies would just be so sad which means I would have to cheer them up even more—"_

"_I don't think Pinkie has a 'usual', to be honest."_

"_Touché."_

"—_but I wouldn't be able to use up too much of my confidence which would mean I'd have to start pretending to—"_

"_Howdy, gals!"_

"_Hey, AJ!"_

"_Hiya, Applejack! Do you wanna hear all the ways I've come up with to make ponies happy without using up any confidence?"_

"…_Maybe later, Pinkie. Twilight, could you stop by the farm later today? Ah need your help with something."_

"_Hm? Is something wrong?"_

"_Yeah, there's some weird pus-like thing that's growin' on our trees and Ah don't know what it is. Would ya mind coming over and taking a look at it, make sure it's not harmful?_

"_Of course! Let me stop by home first to drop off Spike's lunch and get some botany books, and then I'll be right over."_

"_Sure thing. Thanks, Twi."_

—

"_What __**is**__ this?"_

"_Ah was hoping you could tell me."_

"_It must be something from the Everfree Forest. I guess I'd describe it as a moss, but I've never even heard of moss that excretes, ugh, blue and yellow slime. I don't think my books have anything on this."_

"_Should Ah go and ask Zecora for help, then? It looks like it's starting to spread to the other trees."_

"_Maybe. Let me try something first. There's a spell in here that might work—it's meant for killing weeds, but it should work on any type of foreign vegetation. Can't hurt to try. If it doesn't work, we're probably going to have to talk to Zecora."_

"_Sounds good. Fire away, Twi."_


	7. Creation

She opened her eyes.

The first thing she noticed was that the tub of whiteness was gone. Poof. No more white. A sense of relief washed over her, and she smiled contentedly. No matter where she was now, it _had_ to be better than the white. Even the nothing was better than it.

She blinked a few times to focus her eyes, and gazed around her new home in awe.

The glass was black now. It was a comforting and warming black, not an empty or deathly black. It was the black that you saw looking up into the infinite expanse of the night sky, full of wonder and possibility.

She blinked and focused her eyes again, and suddenly realized that that wasn't just a metaphor—what she was standing on _was_ the night sky. Floating within the black, liquid glass were little pinpricks of starlight, shining brightly and slowly flowing down weak currents that curved and spiraled in fluid, complicated patterns. It wasn't like the real night sky, with the stars all light-years away and looking like it; rather, while some stars looked infinitely far away, others seemed to be right underneath her hooves. The night was no longer a two dimensional image, it was a three dimensional pool of swimming stars and galaxies, close enough to touch but separated from her by the imperishable black glass.

No… no, that wasn't quite right. The glass didn't _separate_ her from the sky; the glass still seemed to be impossibly deep, sinking forever into the abyss. The black glass _was_ space, and all the stars were swimming around _in the glass_. The glass floor was night solidified. Theoretically, she supposed, if she was to break the glass in one of the spots where a star seemed close to the surface, she could probably pick it up and hold a piece of starlight with her own hooves.

The prickly part of her brain that still somehow remembered her old life (even though it still wouldn't tell her anything important, like who she was or what she left behind) reminded her that stars weren't _actually_ tiny, twinkling little bits of fairy dust; rather, they were enormous, exploding white balls of death, and trying to touch one had the potential of being a very bad idea and she _shouldn't try it_. She regretfully obliged.

Okay, that was enough of gazing at the ground. What about the rest of this new world?

She raised her head and looked up at the sky. Straight in front of her, down near the horizon, the sky was a deep, full, bright blue. As the sky got further from the horizon, so did its color become darker, turning from a bright blue to ultramarine to a midnight blue, before then becoming warmer and transitioning into yellow shades of goldenrod and amber, to straight above her head where the sky was a solid, pumpkin orange. She turned around and followed the color of the sky down toward the opposite horizon. The sky now transitioned to shades of red, starting with deep carmine into cerise and lust, and then finally terminating on the horizon with the brightest shade of scarlet surrounding a fiery white sun.

It was rather amazing how many shades she could could name when she was desperate for color.

The sun was only a semicircle of light. Half of it was luminous, and radiating heat and warmth. The other half was hidden below the horizon, immersed into the black liquid glass and giving off not a speck of light or heat. Essentially, the sun looked like it was cut neatly in half by the night sky itself.

It was the most beautiful twilight she had ever seen.

_Wait… if everything has color again, then maybe…_

She looked down at herself. Her fur now appeared to be a very consistent shade of violet, covering a lean, young mare's body. Her mane was long-ish, reaching down her torso a fair bit. It was a navy blue color, but the plum and pink highlights in it made it look a good deal more purple-colored than it really was.

Unfortunately, where her cutie mark should be there was still a grainy spot on her flank she couldn't focus on. On that note, where her name and identity should be there was still only a little piece of brain matter that was carefully directing the excavation on her intimate memories, praying that they were still recoverable and not simply crushed by the rocks of stress and fear and despair that were currently denying access to them.

She blinked. _Where did __**that**__ thought come from?_

No, no, forget about that. It's not important.

She turned on the spot, looking for any other features of her new home she had missed. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a small piece of white.

She let out a sudden gasp and stumbled back, for a moment deathly afraid that the immense whiteness had returned and would consume her home. She blushed in embarrassment when her eyes focused on the whiteness and found that it was merely a small rock.

So, the rock had kept its achromaticity, even though everything else had gained color and shade. Interesting.

There was something else. Next to the eternally-white slab of stone, she saw a small, greenish-brown seed.

Oh yeah. She did wish for "life", after all. A seed. That makes sense.

Now what was she supposed to do with it?

_Well, I guess you usually bury seeds so that they can grow…_

She looked around. Around her was sky-black glass reaching infinitely in every direction.

…The black glass may have looked prettier than the white glass, but she was quickly discovering it was just as limiting.

On the other hand, she had already proven that the white glass was breakable. This black glass was probably the same…

She lifted the rock with her magic. She felt vaguely uncomfortable about doing this—the idea of breaking what seemed like a window to the stars activated the same gut feeling she would have if she thought about burning a priceless piece of art—but she reassured herself by remembering that the glass would likely reform within seconds of breaking it.

She found a spot where there were no stars near the surface (stars were enormous, exploding white balls of death, after all) and started hacking away at the glass. A few small shards and splinters of glass burst from the impact zone, leaving ripples in the ground where they fell. Before long she had successfully dug a hoof-sized hole in the glass.

Knowing that she only had a moment before the glass repaired itself, in one flowing movement she picked up the seed with her magic, placed it in the hole, and then instantly covered both the seed and the hole with the white rock.

There! That counted as "burying" the seed, right? Now she just had to sit back and watch.

It wasn't immediate. She had to sit there for several minutes before she noticed that something was happening. In fact, she was just about ready to leave the rock and the seed behind and write the whole thing off as yet another pointless distraction (a distraction from _what_, she couldn't answer) when she noticed the stars below her begin to gather around.

The stars seemed hesitant. They were gathering, but only occasionally did one move close enough to the seed and the hole to poke at it, and each time they did they scurried away right after, as if they'd been burned. They were clearly uncomfortable with its presence—an intruder in their bliss—but were curious regardless.

As the minutes past by, more and more stars gathered around the seed until there was a full, bright halo of starlight surrounding it. The stars stopped poking at the seed, instead joining the rest of the stars in the sphere. There was a pause as the stars held their formation, and then suddenly they dived all at once to the center. The seed glowed for a moment as it absorbed the starlight, and then suddenly it shot out of the ground like a time-lapsed sprout, knocking the rock out of the way and causing it to fly a few yards.

Very quickly the sprout grew into a sapling and then an adult tree, roots shooting into the glass and wrapping around stars. The trunk grew larger and thicker, forcing her to retreat from the tree lest she be struck by the ever-expanding trunk.

The tree stopped growing. It was only now that leaves sprouted out of the branches, but she was focused on something else entirely. The tree was… changing. The trunk shivered and transformed, as if an invisible hoof was carving away at both its inside and outside. Holes appeared where there was solid wood before; a piece of wood above her suddenly jut outward, forming a sort of balcony; pieces of glass started to form, covering the holes and other openings with windows.

Finally, a door carved itself out of the base of the trunk, and with that the tree was stable. With no small amount of apprehension, she trotted up to the door and pushed it open.

Books. Tables. Telescopes. An unhatched purple egg. She'd been here before. She couldn't remember when, but this place was too familiar for her to ignore. She knew, from a memory she never experienced, that if she went up the stairs in the other room and hung a right, she would find herself on the balcony. And she did so.

The golden light of the half-hidden sun shone upon her as she stood tall on her balcony, looking up at the brilliant colors of the sky above her and looking down on the solid night below her. She knew, at that moment, and in her heart of hearts, that this was her home now.

And she planned to make the most of it.


	8. Failure

tear-stricken cheeks

"_Twilight, Applejack is your __**friend**__. She'll forgive you."_

pillow-muffled wails

"_N-no she won't! And she shouldn't!"_

desperate dragon

"_You couldn't have known what would happen! Everything from the Everfree Forest is crazy like that!"_

sorrowed shame

"_That… that's exactly right… everything from the Everfree is crazy. I should've known better. I should've done more research! I should've asked Zecora! I shouldn't have been doing any magic at all so soon after getting screwed up by that stupid book!"_

to atone

"_You can't hide here forever, Twi. Applejack's coming over in a few minutes. You're going to have to talk to her."_

panic

"_Applejack's coming HERE?! No, no… I can't face her right now, please, don't let her. Don't let her!"_

pity

"_Sorry, Twi."_

withdrawal

_I can't talk to her. **I can't talk to her!**_

a helping hand

a book unlocked

_How did it—?_

a curious glance

_Wait… long distance teleportation? **That's** the big secret?_

no

it is a special spell

you want to be far away from here

it is whatever it needs to be

_But… I can't abandon my friend. It's my failure, I have to… I have to…_

we can help you

escape is right there

_But… Applejack…_

a knock on the door

a familiar voice

a familiar face

panic

fear versus friendship

_Sorry…_

a half-attempted spell

a half-completed spell

a teleport without the body

magic and reality inverted

discovery of an existence

one outside the boundaries

you can see yourself

life is not meant to be here

falling away from reality

falling toward magic

falling

falling.

Falling.

A soul being torn apart in the ravages of unreal energy, adding to the life force of the uni—

_**NO!**_

What?

_THIS IS NOT HOW IT HAPPENS!_

I rather disagree.

_THAT IS **MY** SOUL! THAT IS **MY** LIFE! **YOU CANNOT HAVE IT!**_

A soul being overwhelmed by the almighty unity of life, energy, and—

…A soul being absorbed in—

…

Um, a soul piecing itself together into a solid core and holding fast against a raging storm?

_I refuse to lose. This is not how I die. This is not a failure I accept._

A soul passing the border of one existence, and escaping to her own.

Birth without conception.

…

Elsewhere, there was reality, and its many siblings. Elsewhere, there was energy, and its everlasting chaos. Elsewhere, there was life, and all its worth and beauty.

But here?

There was nothing.


	9. Friends

A road of earth and rock formed under her feet as she trotted between the houses she had built. While at first she had to put in deliberate effort to make physical objects using the stars' power, now it seemed like wherever she walked the stars would gather around her and create surroundings by themselves. While she was slightly apprehensive that she seemed to have almost no control over what was being built, she had to admit it was all rather convenient.

(She also had to admit she was feeling a little grumpy that the engineering course she vaguely remembered taking once had turned out to be completely useless.)

After a moment of thought, she decided to walk to a gingerbread house that had recently popped out of nowhere near her treehouse. The house smelled of sweetness and sugar and hyperactivity. Some of the walls and supports were still missing from the house (the stars didn't build things all at once, apparently) but that didn't prevent it from appearing extravagant and welcoming.

She supposed, from the tables and chairs and the ovens and rolling pins, that this gingerbread house was meant to be a bakery. This was where, theoretically, food would be baked that she could buy and eat.

Yum. Food.

She had previously tried to make food the same way she made everything else—thinking about it until it popped into existence. Unfortunately, for some reason the food she made with this method didn't feel… satisfying. After eating, it didn't feel like she had eaten anything.

She really wanted some real food.

It was strange, really. She was pretty sure she didn't need to eat. She couldn't remember the last time she ate, but she definitely _hadn't_ in at least the last month or so. And who knows how much time she spent in the nothing.

(Not to imply, of course, there was such thing as time in nothing.)

Now that she thought about it, how could she know that she'd been here for a month? It wasn't as if the sun moved here. It seemed to like the twilight hour.

Eh, whatever. The point was that she didn't need to eat, and there was no food here, but she was hungry.

Joy. Life really had a way of being annoying sometimes.

Then again, in this bakery… there _was_ flour here, and sugar, and baking soda, and probably other stuff in the back rooms… she could bake something for herself, couldn't she?

Then again (again), this was a _bakery_… she wasn't very good at baking… shouldn't there be bakers here to do that for her?

Huh, that was actually a very good idea! A baker is kind of like an object, and she'd gotten pretty good at summoning objects.

She focused.

A batch of stars gathered around a spot in front of her, bright and somehow clearly visible even through the floor of the bakery. After a few seconds of arbitrary swirling, they all leapt from the glassy ground at once and merged together into the shape of a pony made of pure light. A few seconds later, the light dimmed and the pink-furred and pink-maned pony underneath became visible.

Huh. That wasn't very dramatic. You'd think that creating life would at least take a bit longer than a few seconds. Where was the energy? The fanfare? The fireworks?

The pink-furred and pink-maned pony had fully dimmed now, the starlight out of her system. The pony slowly opened her eyes, revealing bright blue irises that looked curiously out at the world around her. The pony looked a bit confused.

…For about two seconds, before a massive grin appeared on her face and she leaped into the air in excitement, seemingly defying gravity by hovering there as explosions of light and color filled all sight, streamers and balloons and the sound of blaring trumpets all announcing the pink pony's presence.

_Oh. **There's** the fanfare._

The pink pony landed and started hopping on the spot as the streamers and sparkles previously launched into the air began to succumb to gravity and make a mess of the floor. "Hi, Twilight! Great to see you!" said the excitable pink pony, beaming brighter than the stars. "I guess you're not my friend anymore because you don't remember me and that's sad, but I'm always good at making new friends even if it's really the same friend twice!"

She stared. This was… not what she expected. "Um… who are you?" she said slowly, her voice slightly gruff from disuse. It had been a while since she'd talked to somebody besides herself. She had to admit it was rather nice.

The bubbly pink pony slapped her forehoof to her head and giggled. "Oh, I _am_ a silly filly! I already forgot that you forgot! My name's Pinkie Pie!" She removed her hoof from her forehead and stuck it out in greeting.

_The pink-furred and pink-maned pony is named Pinkie. Of course. Why did I even have to ask?_

Having nothing better to do, she stuck out her own forehoof in return greeting to the pink pony, only to regret it a moment later when she found herself tackled to the ground in a bone-crushing hug.

Apparently in Pinkie-speak, a sticking a forehoof out is _not_ invitation for a hoofshake, but rather an invitation for a glomp. She would have to remember that.

"Oh, Twilight! We've missed you _so much!"_ Pinkie bubbled in joy. "I was going throw a party for you whenever you came back, but you never did! Why'd you do that? It's so _boring_ here!" Pinkie got up and waved her hooves around in random directions, attempting to point to everywhere at once. "There are no other ponies here! No one to play with, nothing to do! The sun doesn't even move—you should get to work on that," she added sagely.

She huffed in annoyance. "I do just fine here, thanks," she said defensively, but the pink pony was already ignoring her and instead focusing on a little patch of bakery floor that hadn't been properly built yet, and so still had a view of the starry glass below.

"Ooh, pretty." Lying on the hardwood floor of the bakery, the pink pony watched the dancing stars for a few moments, and then dipped a hoof in and started twirling the stars experimentally. The inky glass rippled and parted from Pinkie's touch as if she had sunk her hoof below the surface of a lake.

Her jaw dropped. "H-how are you doing that?!"

Pinkie looked up, a look of genuine confusion on her face. "Doing what?"

"Doing _that!"_ she exclaimed as she stomped the ground Pinkie had dipped her hoof into for herself, the glass responding with the expected solid _chink_.

Pinkie looked down at her own hoof, then looked up at the pony before her. A few moments passed, and then the look of dawning comprehension crossed her face. Which was then immediately followed by a grin and a look of deviousness. "I don't understand why you think this is weird," Pinkie said sweetly, twirling her hoof through the glass lake. "Shouldn't I be asking _you_ how you're able to walk on water?"

Her eye twitched dangerously.

Pinkie giggled into her hoof. "I'm just kidding, Twilight. Um, I think the glass is solid for you because… well, do you remember when you thought 'horizon' that time, way back?"

She cocked her head.

"Well… I never thought 'horizon'!" Pinkie exclaimed with a grin, as if that explained everything.

What a weird girl.

Pinkie suddenly brightened and started bouncing on the spot. "Ooh! I just had an amazingly awesometastic idea! We're never going to get to have your 'Welcome Back!' party if you never come back, so why don't we all come to _you_ and have the party here instead?" The party pony got down on her knees and lifted her forehooves together in a mockery of prayer. "_Please,_ Twilight? _Can we can we can we?"_

She reflexively took a couple hoofsteps back at the pink pony's outburst. "Uh… who's 'we', exactly?"

"You and me and our friends, of course!"

"And how do you suppose 'our' friends will be able to get here?"

Pinkie actually looked stumped at this for a moment. But only a moment. "Well, you're just going to have to make them, _obviously!_ Like you made me!"

A pause.

"No," she said stubbornly.

Pinkie's smiling face morphed into an exaggerated pout. "_C'mon,_ Twilight? Why not?"

"Because I'm already starting to regret making you. I don't need any more company."

Her pouting face morphed into a thoughtful one, and then subsequently morphed into a sly grin. "Do you know what's usually at parties, Twilight? Y'know, besides streamers and balloons and dancing and games and fun things like that? _Food._ All parties have food! That what you wanted from me in the first place, right?"

"Well…"

"But not just any kind of food!" Pinkie continued before she could be interrupted. "For this party, I wanna bake a big, enormous apple pie for dessert, but Sugarcube Corner doesn't have any apples. And I'm not going to make any of the rest of the food unless I can bake my apple pie, so I want _you_ to get some apples for me! And none of that fake stuff you imagine up, I want _real_ apples."

She stared at the party pony in annoyance and suspicion. "This is going to send me on a wild goose chase, and you're doing it on purpose, aren't you?"

Pinkie grinned. "Yup!"

"…So, if I know that, why should I listen to a word you say?"

Another grin. "Because ponies will do anything for food when they're hungry, and also because your life has been boring enough recently that you're willing to humor me for sheer curiosity's sake!"

She glared at the pink pony in annoyance and exasperation, not admitting to herself the little part of her mind that agreed wholeheartedly with what Pinkie had just said.

"If you wanna find apples, you should follow the dirt path that leads out of town! You're sure to find apples there!" Pinkie babbled on.

With a huff, she turned away from the pink pony and toward the door, not bothering to say goodbye and not wanting to admit the first thing she'd do upon leaving would be finding that dirt path. As she reached the door, she noticed out of the corner of her eye that Pinkie was intently staring at her flank for some reason.

"Where's your cutie mark?" the pony asked, rubbing her chin.

Her cutie mark? She looked down, but found that it was still impossible to focus on that area of her body. "I don't have one," she stated simply.

"Yes you do! Well… um, you used to, at least…"

She looked back at the pink pony. "Oh, really? What was it?"

"Your cutie mark represented magic! It was, like, it was some big pink star and it was surrounded by a bunch of smaller whi—" Pinkie abruptly stopped talking mid-sentence. The pink pony looked at the bare, slightly unfocused flank before her, then look down at the inky glass below her, then look back up…

Pinkie started giggling. "Oh, I get it! Gwha! I'm so silly sometimes! Keep on goin', Twi. Applejack's a waitin'!"

Disturbed, she quickly left the bakery as the party pony within fell to the ground and started laughing hysterically.

—

The dirt path was easy to find. The path lead out of town, directly away from the eternally-twilit sun, causing long shadows to form on the ground before her.

Now that she reflected, she felt kinda bad for acting so unfriendly toward Pinkie Pie. For as undeniably… strange her encounter with the girl was, she had to admit…

…

What _did_ she have to admit?

She didn't have to admit anything! What was she thinking? Pinkie's bribery was annoying, and she should feel annoyed!

Yeah, that worked. She nodded her head in satisfaction.


	10. Quests

The dirt path lead her to a large patch of farmland. The vast majority of the farmland was covered in identical, very boring-looking trees that lacked any sort of decoration, whether it be flower of fruit. The regions of farmland not covered in trees were either bare or consisted of yet more windows into the sky-glass beneath them.

She would bet everything she had that the forest of trees before her were all apple trees, but lacking the fruit. Life liked to play games with her like that.

(And now she had _Pinkie_ playing games with her as well. Oh, what joy. If this kept up, she would soon be little more than a playing piece in a bunch of other people's games.)

So, she had to figure out why the trees weren't growing apples. Which may be difficult, since, you know, she knew absolutely nothing about apple farming.

…

Oh! Of course! She made Pinkie in the first place because she didn't know how to bake. What was stopping her from making an apple farmer to tell her what to do? (Or, better yet, do it all themselves?) Yes, that was a great idea!

_I **know** that this is exactly what Pinkie wants me to do. Why am I purposefully letting her push me around like this? Why am I letting **you** push me around like this?_

Her worries were quickly forgotten.

She focused; the stars swirled under the earth of the farmland; bright white light formed the shape of a pony before her; the shape dimmed and revealed a freckled orange-furred blonde-maned mare before her, wearing both a smile and a cowboy hat.

She should have brought Pinkie along to set off fireworks and stuff whenever she did this. Creating life was so undramatic otherwise.

"Howdy, Twi! What brings ya 'round these parts?"

_What brings __**me**__ here?_ "What do you mean?"

The orange pony grinned. "Well, Ah'm just used to ya always being cooped up reading a book or something this time a' day. Though Ah'm always happy to see ya, of course."

"_Applejack's a waitin'!" Was Pinkie referring to this girl?_

"Applejack?"

"Yeah?"

_Oh, good._ She looked toward the apple trees again, confirming they were still bare before asking her next question. "You take care of the apples here, right?"

Applejack gave her a strange look, eyes narrowing in suspicion. "Uh, yes."

"How come the apple situation here seems so… not happening?" she asked as she gestured to the bare apple trees nearby.

Applejack sighed and turned away, looking down and scraping the ground with a hoof. "We've had… a bad season. Everything that coulda went wrong… uh, did. Ah think we have enough money to get by until next year's crops, but Ah've still been feeling mighty worried. Not even Granny Smith can remember havin' an apple season this bad."

Well, this put a damper on the idea of getting the apples for Pinkie's apple pie here. "Why's it so bad this year? What what wrong?"

The farmer sighed again. "Well, you know. There was the Cloudsdale drought and all, and _apparently_ they got that all cleared up but **Ah** sure haven't seen any rain clouds comin' this way!" she said, gesturing angrily at the beautifully clear sunset-sky. "Ah don't know what Rainbow Dash is doing, but whatever it is it ain't resultin' in any rain!"

A mental checklist began to form. For some reason, the act was comforting to her.

_1. Figure out a way to get the weather working._

"But as bad as the drought's been, that's not the only problem! What few apples we've grown have been eaten by legions of varmints. We've never had to deal with controlling the pests 'cause Fluttershy's always taken care of 'em, but clearly that hasn't been working out too well recently. Ah'm sure she's having troubles of her own trying to feed all her animals with the drought and all, but still…" She trailed off.

_2. Deal with the animals and this "Fluttershy" girl._

Applejack was looking more and more depressed as she continued talking about her farm's failure. "An' not even _that's_ the end of it. Not even the sun seems to be on our side anymore…"

That caught her attention. "What do you mean?"

The farmer sighed. "Well… Ah've sure you've noticed how cold it's been recently. But it's not just that we've hit a cold snap, it's like the sun itself isn't as strong as it used to be. Ah haven't felt the warmth of a noonday sun for a long time now. An' I know my apples, and Ah can tell they haven't been get the sunlight they need to grow… Ah know it sounds crazy, sayin' the sun ain't as strong as it used to be, but that's really how Ah feel…" The mare frowned and looked away.

She looked toward the setting sun, half-hidden below the sky of inky glass. She was confused by Applejack's claim. "Well… _yeah_ it hasn't felt as strong. It's been twilight for months now. That doesn't mean the sun itself is less powerful."

Applejack looked at her oddly. "Uh, what do ya mean by that, Twi?"

She looked oddly right back at Applejack. "What do you mean, 'what do I mean?'" She waved a hoof in the direction of the sun. "You know, the sun there, in the middle of sunset. It hasn't moved from that position in months."

Applejack looked toward the horizon, then looked up at the sky, then tilted her head back down and looked straight into the eyes of the pony in front of her. "Sugarcube… it's mid-afternoon."

She didn't understand, not at first. But before long a theory bubbled its way up to the forefront of her mind. She noticed Applejack staring at her with worry as she began to dig a hole in the dirt in front of the mare.

Before long she had dug through the layer of earth and hit the sky-glass beneath it, clearly apparent both by the shining starlight pouring out of the ground and by the light ache she now felt in her hoof when her eager digging had resulted in accidentally banging her hoof into the glass. "Applejack, what is this?" she asked, pointing at the glass.

Applejack looked apprehensive about answering, but eventually did so anyway. "It's dirt, Twilight."

"Are you _sure_ about that? Can you touch it and make sure?"

Applejack stared, confusion and worry on her face. "…Why?"

"Humor me."

Applejack sighed lightly. She stepped forward and placed a hoof in the hole, tapping the bottom a few times. A _clink_ sound punctuated each tap of the glass. "It's dirt, Twi."

Excellent! She made a hypothesis, and it was confirmed by experiment. Maybe she was a scientist after all! "You're not like Pinkie Pie," she announced proudly.

"…No, Ah reckon I ain't." Applejack took a deep breath. "Twi… are you all right? You're… Ah'm sorry, but yer not actin' yourself. Ah know how stressed y'all can get when something's bothering you. Ah'm here for you, y'know. You can always tell me anything if something's wrong. You know that, right?"

The worry in Applejack's eyes almost made her feel guilty. She would have to be careful from now on when talking to ponies other than Pinkie Pie; she didn't want to feel so self-conscious.

"No, no, Applejack. Don't worry, I'm perfectly fine. Just haven't slept for a while, that's all." Well _that_ was true. She hadn't bothered to sleep for a long time, just as she hadn't bothered to eat.

Then again, maybe it _was_ a good idea to sleep sometime soon. After all, the only reason she was doing all this was to get apples for Pinkie's apple pie. If she was starting to get hungry, it stood to reason she might start to get tired soon.

"Maybe you should go home an' get some rest then, Twi."

"Good idea! I'll see you later then!" she said with fake cheer.

"See you, Twi. Remember, Ah'm always here to help if you need me."

She left the farm as quickly as she could. Sticking around Applejack was affecting her conscience for reasons she didn't understand, and she wanted to get away as soon as possible.


	11. Weather

_1. Figure out a way to get the weather working._

_2. Deal with the animals and this "Fluttershy" girl._

_3. Get the sun moving again._

That was a lot of work just for some apples. Oh well, at least she had a plan. That was better than nothing, right?

She was pretty sure the pony in charge of weather was some girl called "Rainbow Dash". That was what Applejack implied, at least. This whole "creating ponies to deal with stuff she didn't know how to deal with" thing wasn't _quite_ working so far—both Pinkie and Applejack had just sent her on further fetch quests rather than doing what they were _supposed_ to do—but… she would rather not admit it, but she really couldn't think of any other ways of fixing her problems. She sighed. _Oh well._

She focused.

The stars shined and gathered.

The shape of a pony was formed in bright white light.

The white light changed into the colors of the rainbow, and shone bright multicolored light across the sky and earth. _Oh! That's new!_

The rainbow dimmed, and revealed a grinning Rainbow underneath.

"Hey, Twi! What's up?" she said cheerily, beginning to hover automatically. "Make it quick, though. I gotta get someplace soon."

She might as well cut straight to the chase with this one. "The weather is what's up." She mentally snorted at her unintended pun. "Applejack's crops won't grow without rain. So what's up?"

Rainbow frowned and started buzzing around above her in agitation. "I _told_ her already that the new clouds from Cloudsdale won't make it here for another couple days. The weather team can't do anything until we get them. I _know_ her fam isn't doing so hot, but there's _nothing I can do about it!_ Can you please tell her that, Twi? Please?"

She blinked at the pegasus above her. That wasn't quite the reaction she expected. "You're sounding a little stressed."

Rainbow stopped hovering and landed back on the ground. She sighed. "Yeah, I know, it's just… it's hard enough seeing AJ's farm all messed up, but it's worse when it feels like she's blaming _me_ for it. I can't do anything about the lack of rain until the clouds get here, and I wish everyone would stop getting on my case about it. It's… it's not my fault."

Well, that made things easy enough. "So, the clouds are coming, and they'll be here in a few days, and when you get them you'll start the rain?"

"Yeah."

Awesome. So she wasn't going to be getting a new fetch quest after all. "You said you were going somewhere a minute ago? Where are you off to?"

A huge grin spread across Rainbow's face, completely dispelling all traces of her brief stint of melancholy. "I've got the most awesome of awesome pranks _ever_ in store for our own _dahhhhling_ Rarity," she said, stretching out the "darling" with a mock-posh tone of voice. "It's going to be _epic!"_

Rainbow's grin was infectious, and she soon found herself grinning too. "You mind telling me what the prank is?"

"Sorry, nope!—wait, no… I mean _yes_, I do mind," Rainbow said, fumbling with her words. "You'll get to see it like everyone else later tonight."

"Heh, well, then I'm looking forward to it!"

"Right you are! See ya, Twi! I got things to do and awesome to be!" She laughed and flew off, leaving a rainbow trail behind in her wake.

She watched Rainbow Dash fly off somewhere into the distance, grinning inwardly. Well, that was easy! Her conversation with Rainbow had been as speedy and erratic as the pegasus mare herself, and had resulted in a cemented solution that required nothing from herself to give.

She smiled. Things were looking awesome.


	12. Vermin

_2. Deal with the animals and this "Fluttershy" girl._

Her encounter with Rainbow Dash may have encouraged her, but she still felt slightly hesitant about creating yet another pony who could _very well_ go ahead and send her on another fetch quest.

But, again, it wasn't as if she had any better ideas.

She focused.

The stars swirled.

The bright white light did its thing.

A butter-yellow pegasus appeared before her.

_Screw "undramatic"! The creation of life is starting to get downright **boring!**_

Then again, there _were_ two new interesting things about this particular creation of life that would hopefully make this not-quite-boring. The first thing she noticed was that the pegasus—Fluttershy, hopefully—had a camera on a strap hanging around her neck. This was the first time an inanimate object had accompanied her life-creating.

_Wait, no, that's not right at all. Applejack had a cowboy hat; doesn't that count?_

…Okay, never mind. There was _one_ new interesting about this particular creation of life. And that was that the mare in front of her was looking around in confusion, surprise and fear in her eyes. She was acting as if she was aware of her sudden appearance in the world, unlike the all other ponies she'd made who had all acted as if they'd been there all along.

_Wait, that's not right either! Pinkie looked disoriented when I first created her as well!_

…Okay, screw it. There _wasn't_ anything new or interesting about Fluttershy's birth. It was exactly the same as all the others so far.

Then again, Pinkie was the only pony she'd met so far that seemed to be aware of reality—Applejack and Rainbow Dash seemed to be living in their own little dreamworlds (sure, she hadn't really tested it with Rainbow, but the way she said the prank wouldn't be until "tonight"—implying that it was still daytime—suggested she was living the same illusion as Applejack). Therefore, the reason Pinkie looked disoriented when she was first created was probably because she was aware of her own creation, and so had to take a moment to get her bearings. If Fluttershy was looking disoriented, then that probably meant she was aware of true reality like Pinkie was. In fact, if she'd only—

Her inner monologue was interrupted by the quiet yellow pegasus finally speaking up. "Um… hi, Twilight," she said meekly. "I was, um, just a moment ago I thought I was… somewhere else. Um, did you teleport me back to Ponyville? There's nothing wrong, is there? I hope there's nothing wrong…"

_Well, there goes the idea of her being like Pinkie Pie. She's no more aware of reality than the others were. Darn._

"Hello, Fluttershy." (On reflection, she realized she didn't _know_ that the pony in front of her was Fluttershy, but at this point she was basically just assuming.) "You say you were 'somewhere else'? Where were you?"

Fluttershy blinked. "Um, you… you know, the Amarezon. Um, where I've been for the past few weeks. I… I got to study some of the rainforest animals. D-did everyone forget I left? Oh no, no one forgot me, did they…?" The pegasus sounded so pathetic that she felt like she should be pulling her into a hug and reassuring her or something.

She waved a hoof as if she was trying to brush Fluttershy's problems away. "No, no, you know me! Forgetful as always! Ha. Ha ha ha!"

Wow, that sounded awkward. Let's try that again:

"So, the Amarezon, huh? How was it? Did you take a lot of pictures?" That was a bit better, good.

Fluttershy's face brightened. "Oh, yes! It was very fun! I met a lot of animals I'd never even heard of before! I took so many pictures. I can't wait to show all you girls!"

"Heh, quite the shutterfly, aren't you?" The pegasus blushed. "So… I guess you're wondering why I tore you away from your vacation?"

On cue, Fluttershy turned serious. "Something bad happened, didn't it?" she said weakly. "Oh, I hope it's not too bad, that would be awful… it's not too bad, right?"

Yikes, even if something really bad _did_ happen she wasn't sure she'd be able to break it to the girl. "It's kinda bad. While you were gone there was a drought here, which meant your animals had nothing to eat." The pegasus gasped, already looking like she was fearing the worst. "They're okay though, but only because they've been eating all of Applejack's remaining crops. Sorry for pulling you out of your vacation, but Applejack needs you to take care of your animals so that she can try to start growing her apples again."

From what she'd seen of Fluttershy thus far, she expected her to look pained, or gasp, or… something. She didn't expect the look of hard determination and responsibility that instead graced the pegasus's eyes. "No, you don't need to be sorry, Twilight. You did the right thing. I'll get on it right away." And, with that, she suddenly flew off toward the farm.

She watched the pegasus retreat into the distance. "Um… goodbye?" she said aloud. The sudden farewell took her by surprise. Granted, she didn't know Fluttershy very well, but it still seemed unlike her.

When she thought about it, her entire conversation with Fluttershy was actually fairly similar to her conversation with Rainbow Dash. They were both shallow and short, to the point, and with a sudden goodbye. Odd.

Maybe it was just a pegasus thing.


	13. Empty

_3. Get the sun moving again._

So, who was she supposed to create this time? Who was supposed to deal with the sun?

_A princess…_

No, that didn't make any sense. Princesses dealt with political bodies, not celestial bodies.

Hmm.

There _was_ a princess that controlled the sun. She remembered that, vaguely. But…

…

It didn't feel right to create a pony to control the sun.

Why was that?

…

Her gaze was drawn to the sun's twilight. The sky was dominated by a spectrum of pinks and orange. There was a sharp line where the night sky of the ground cut through the sun. Shining bright light permeated her world, making life possible.

All of it was her wish, her wish from so very long ago. The wish for life and light.

…

This was her world, and that was her sun.

…

Yes. Yes, that makes sense. There would be no other pony controlling the sun. It was _her_ sun. This world was _her_ world. She was a princess, and she would control her _own_ sun.

She focused.

The stars moved beneath her, forming a bright, straight line that started with her and ended beyond the horizon. She let her magic flow through this chain of stars, letting it lead her to the ball of fire, ever so far away.

She gasped when she felt her magic connect. She could _feel_ the sun. It was an incredibly vast and deep well of power, of potential energy, and now it was part of her magic. It was nothing like telekinesis—the sun was an extension of her own being. The sun was _her_.

Now to make it move. She poured all the magic she had in her possession through the stars, powering the sun and willing it to set. It was like trying to wake herself out of a deep slumber—the sun was _her_, but it was still immensely difficult to control.

She willed it with all her might, pushing with all her mind and magic. Let. The. Sun. Set!

The sun sparked, shifted, groaned, and then dipped below the horizon.

The world was immediately cast into darkness. She waved a hoof in front of her face, but she couldn't see it.

She swore loudly.

—

_Okay, clearly moving the sun wasn't the brightest idea I've ever had,_ she thought as she nearly walked into the side of building. Again.

_Heh, "brightest". Ugh…_

A hastily-created lantern was hanging around her neck. She had thought that the lantern would provide sufficient light to get around, but instead the magical flame only lit the way about a foot and a half in any direction. After that, the light was just absorbed into the blackness.

If the ground wasn't now covered by earth and vegetation, the glow from the stars beyond the sky-glass probably would have been enough to light the way. Unfortunately, patches of sky-glass were becoming harder and harder to come by. If she didn't know any better, she would have no idea that they even _was_ a glass sky beneath her.

_Huh? What are you talking about? I can't see the stars, sure, but I can still feel the magical energy radiating off of them._

You can?

_Uh, yeah?_

Oh, um, that shouldn't… uh, never mind. Let me rephrase this, quickly…

If the ground wasn't now covered by earth and vegetation, the glow from the stars beyond the sky-glass probably would have been enough to light the way. Unfortunately, patches of sky-glass were becoming harder and harder to come by. She could still _feel _the swirling stars beneath her, but their light no longer accompanied her.

Right now she was just kind of wandering aimlessly. In theory she was trying to make her way back to her treehouse, but that plan was looking pretty much hopeless at the moment. It was nearly impossible for her to get her bearings or to ascertain her trajectory when the only things she could see was what she was about to crash into.

This pitch-black nighttime was going to be a problem. Once the sun rose again it would be light and normal out, of course, but then twelve hours later the sun would set and she'd have to deal with this blackness all over again. And again. And again. She would _not_ let that happen!

(Of course, this was assuming that the sun was still moving on schedule below the glass, even though she wasn't actively pumping it with magic. She chose to believe that the sun would rise again in twelve hours, because the alternative was too horrifying to think about.)

So. A new objective:

_4. Light the night._

Hey, it rhymes! That means it must be true!

Anyway, how was she supposed to light the night?

_Well, it's rather obvious, really. How did I light the day?_

Well, with a sun, of course.

_So how should I light the night?_

…With another sun?

_You're an idiot._

Heehee, a moon it is, then.

She imagined a big red pen scribbling out the step "light the night" in her mental checklist and instead writing beneath it:

_4. Make a moon._

Aha! Alliteration was almost as awesome as rhyming.

Hmm. Making a moon…

Ah! Of course! She would make a princess to create and control the moon. After all, the moon was merely a reflection of the light of the sun, it wasn't important enough for her to waste her own magic on. Yes, yes it made perfect sense to make a princess to deal with the moon.

_That… doesn't make much sense at all. It actually sounds rather forced. _

Oh, come on! Stop arguing with me over every little thing and just shut up! **I'm** in charge here!

Now all that needed to happen was, in her aimless wandering, for her to somehow find some castle or fancy building somewhere that she could create a princess in. Royalty always needs a castle, right? Hopefully she'd run into something…

…

She reflexively brought her hoof up to her muzzle, rubbing it and to trying to dull the pain of accidentally running face-first into the side of a building that had suddenly emerged from the darkness. When she said that she hoped she ran into something, she didn't mean it like _that!_

Grumbling, she removed her hoof from her face and looked up, trying to see what she had run into. Then she grumbled again when she remembered that the lantern around was practically useless and allowed her to see no more of the building than the part she had impacted.

Speaking of which, the part she had impacted was a door that was flanked by wooden support beams located on the outside of the building, painted purple and pink in swirling stripes that made her think of a candy cane. At first she thought she was at the bakery again, but then dismissed the idea because she didn't feel like talking to Pinkie Pie right now and so chose not to believe she was anywhere near her.

Magically removing the lantern from its place around her neck and lifting it up above her, she saw the name of name of the place emblazoned above the doorway: _The Carousel Boutique_. Lifting the lantern farther, she noticed that the building design resembled a castle tower, with white wood stretching skyward forming multiple levels until it peaked at the very top.

Amazing. She asked to run into a castle, and she ran into a place that looks like somebody had cut off a portion of a castle and dumped it in the middle of nowhere. If she didn't know any better, she'd think that happy coincidences like this were happening on purpose!

She shook her head to try to clear her thoughts—which instead gave her a slight headache—and opened the door of the partial-castle, surprised by the light that greeted her as she entered. Blinking a few times, she found herself in the waiting room of some clothing store or something. She noted with amusement that the part of the room customers would enter, reaching from the door to cashier table, was completely and utterly clear of even the smallest speck of dust, likely clean enough to perform open-heart surgery in. However, the room beyond the cashier table, while mostly hidden by curtain, appeared to have a hundred types of clothes and fabrics flown all over the place, as if someone had decided that the best way to organize their stuff was to make _all of it_ visible in plain sight. It was an… interesting contrast, to say the least.

So. This would be the home of the princess. Was this place _really_ fit for a princess, considering the place appeared as if half of it was lived in by a college student and the other half by a pony with OCD? There must be fancier places available for a princess—

_Stop…_

Hm? No matter, she didn't really have a choice, now that she thought about it. It was too dark to go back outside and—

_Stop!_

…

_Why am I doing this?_

…

_**Why am I doing this?**_

_Why does any of this matter?_

_What are you doing to me?_

_Why am I making ponies in the first place?_

_Why am I **living** here in the first place?_

_Why does everything feel so empty? So meaningless?_

…

_What is so wrong?_

_What is my problem?_

_What am I doing?_

…

_Am I depressed?_

_Am I lonely?_

_Is all of this just a lie? A big prank?_

…

_What is my problem?_

_How can I solve it?_

_**Why** should I solve it?_

_When did I start to obey without thinking for myself?_

_When did I start to believe that all things could be made better by just dabbing a little starlight on them?_

…

…

…

Eh. She'd applied starlight to every _other_ problem she'd had so far; one more time couldn't hurt.


	14. Moon

She focused.

Blah blah the stars swirled blah blah.

This creation did come with something different though: while all other previous creations had the vaguely-equine-shaped bright white blob stay in one spot as it formed into a pony, _this_ blob just couldn't stay still—it was rushing around the back room trying to handle fabrics using hooves and magic it didn't yet have.

_She's trying to do her job before she's even born! Now **that's** a work ethic!_

Before long, the light settled into the form of a unicorn mare, who was still rushing around the workshop and seemingly unaffected by the fact that moments ago she didn't possess the magic that she was now using to work her fabrics. The unicorn wore the colors of the night, with a midnight-blue mane and tail and a pure white coat reminiscent of the full moon. On her flank was an image of three sparkling diamonds.

_Like a diamond in the sky…_

In the mare's haste, she had failed to notice her visitor. Said visitor chose to rectify that. "_Ahem."_

Without breaking stride or even bothering to look at her visitor, the unicorn announced, "Welcome to Princess Rarity's _Carousel Boutique_, where every garment is chic, unique, and magnifique! We're closed right now, but if you wish to order a commissioned piece please leave your name and address on the sheet on the front counter. If you wish to see me now, please wait in the main room and I will speak to you in five minutes."

Nah, that wasn't happening. "_Ahem!"_

Rarity bristled. Without taking her eyes off her work, she began to admonish her visitor. "I will have you know that it is extremely rude for one to interrupt the dealings of another pony, especially when one is a guest in another's household"—the unicorn slowly turned to face her visitor directly—"and _especially_ when one is speaking to a princess! I have half the mind to… why hello there, Twilight!" Rarity exclaimed, switching her tone of voice to one of a friendly greeting so suddenly that it almost sounded practiced.

"Hello, Rarity," she responded, taking mental note of the possibility that the pony before her may be prone to sudden mood swings, if her apparent ease in changing her outwardly visible emotions was anything to go by. Either that, or she was just very good at acting—a drama queen who enjoys making her every emotion fit for the stage. "You're still working so late at night?"

"Why of _course,_ dear," she said with a dramatic sigh. "The life of an artist is always a busy one. A dozen of these garments must be made by the end of the week. Shush, don't tell me. I know you would rather me ask for help, but I know no one with even a smidgen of an eye for artistic detail, and I _refuse_ to let the quality of my work drop with quantity. Each one shall be an individual work of _art_ when I am finished; anything less would tarnish my reputation and my pride!"

_A drama queen. With a lot to say. Well, that's nice._ "I suppose, then, that in your busy work here you forgot to raise the moon?" she said, conveniently leaving out the fact that Rarity didn't exist until a minute or so ago. (As well as leaving out the fact that she wasn't even sure if Rarity knew about her moon-raising responsibilities.)

The lunar princess's eyes widened comically. "W-what? I am… I was certain I raised the moon over an hour ago!"

"Well, you didn't," she stated blandly. "Would you mind coming out and raising it, please?"

"Oh! Why, yes, of course," she said, flustered, as she began toward the door and the darkness beyond. "I… am deeply sorry, Twilight. I promise nothing like this will happen again."

She left the door open as they exited the boutique, letting the light from indoors spill out into the darkness and illuminate the surrounding area. "It's fine. Don't worry about it."

Rarity nodded and closed her eyes, visibly trying to gather the large amount of magic necessary to move an entire celestial body. At first, it appeared that everything was going well—Rarity was calm and focused and sufficient power seemed to be collecting around her. However, after a minute, the mare's eyebrows furrowed, followed closely by a very un-ladylike grimace forming on her face.

After a few minutes of this, with Rarity now starting to look panicked and the moon no closer to rising, she felt it was time for her to step in. She placed a hoof on the lunar princess's shoulder. "What's wrong?"

Rarity dispelled her magic and whipped her head toward the pony beside her, eyes wide in horror. "The m-moon," she whimpered. "I can't feel it. The moon… it's, it's _gone!"_

Dammit. So she had to make everything herself after all. She couldn't just create a pony to deal with the moon and have a moon magically appear because of that. Why did life have to be so difficult?!

"_What will we do?!"_ Rarity almost shrieked. "How can there not be a moon?! How will we be able to see at night? What are we going to tell Equestria?! How could I have not noticed my own moon disappearing? What if—"

"Jeez, calm down," she mumbled to herself as she patiently waited for Rarity's panic-fueled tirade to die down enough for her to get a word in.

"Is this a sign of things to come?! Will the sun be next? Will we have to—do you hear that?" Rarity suddenly asked, once again effortlessly and unnaturally changing her tone of voice.

She just stared blankly at Rarity for a moment, but then she began to hear something as well. It sounded like… laughing? Who would be laughing at them?

Apparently Rarity knew exactly who, as she raised her head and scolded into the darkness, "_Rainbow Dash!"_

Out of the black of the moonless night came a snorting and chortling blue pegasus mare with a rainbow-colored mane and tail. "Heehee, you should've seen the look on your face, Rarity!" she exclaimed with a sense of pride. "It was _priceless!"_

"I presume this was another one of your pranks, Rainbow," Rarity said, giving off a contemptuous air that fully displayed her lack of amusement. "Now, please return the moon. All of Equestria needs it; stealing it just for a silly prank is extremely immature of you _at best."_

…_What._

Rainbow stuck her tongue out at the unicorn. "Well _excuuuse_ me. C'mon, you _gotta_ admit this was a pretty awesome prank! You were totally freaking out!"

Rarity glared at the pegasus. "Put it back, Rainbow Dash."

Rainbow sighed. "Fine, fine…" From behind her the pegasus pulled out a very familiar-looking misshapen stone of the very purest of purest whites. Gripped within her hooves, the stone reshaped itself into a perfect, unblemished sphere. With a theatrical heave, Rainbow threw the rock into the air.

She was almost about to catch it with her magic, lest the rock fall on one of them, but then she remembered that the entire world was utterly nonsensical, and she might be better off to just watch and see what happened rather than try to interfere.

As a part of her expected, the rock was completely unaffected by the laws of gravity and continued flying straight and true toward the sky at impossible speeds. What she didn't expect was for the rock to completely ignore the laws of _perception_ too. While the rock was obviously flying further and further away from them, it still looked exactly the same size as it did when it was in Rainbow's hooves, as well as keeping the exact same level of brightness. In fact, in a way, it looked as if the rock wasn't moving at all—just hovering over their heads. And yet, it was so clear, so _very_ clear to her eyes, that the rock was moving away from them at a hundred million miles an hour.

After a mere eight seconds, the rock halted its trajectory and placed itself in a nice, cozy spot in the sky, right where the moon would go. Its whiteness illuminated the night, finally ridding the world of the blanket of black that had been such an inconvenience.

She stared. _None of this makes any sense._

"There, isn't that so much better? I'll let you get away with it this time, Rainbow Dash, but believe me, I certainly will _not_ if I find you doing anything of this caliber as a prank ever again. Promise me, Rainbow."

Rainbow sighed. "Fine, fine. I promise I won't steal the moon again. Happy?"

_None of this makes any sense!_

Rarity smiled. "Very. Now that this is all cleared up, I simply _must_ get back to my work. You two dears understand, of course?"

"Yeah, and I have to get some shuteye, myself. That was a _long_ flight," Rainbow said, rubbing her sore shoulder. "Hey, I hear Fluttershy's back from her vacation. How about we all have lunch tomorrow and catch up? I'll tell AJ if one of you tell Fluttershy—Pinkie'll know about it somehow no matter what."

"It's a date," Rarity agreed as she reentered her shop. "I'll see you two tomorrow."

"Sounds good. See ya, Twi!" Rainbow called as she too began flying back to her cloud house, disappearing from sight as Rarity closed her door.

A lone pony was left by herself at night in the middle of the street.

She chose a random direction and started walking.


	15. Home

Her walk brought her to the top of a grassy hill, a place that would probably have been fairly active in the daytime. At night, though, it was very peaceful. She lay down and stared up at the night sky. A few specks of stars were starting to form around the moon, but the majority of stars still existed in the skyglass below, leaving the night curiously void of their presence.

_This is it._

_This is life. _

…

_Is it worth it?_

"Of _course_ it is, silly filly!" a shrill and happy voice exclaimed, interrupting her thoughts. "Stop trying to be all brooding and deep. Cheer up! I have a present for you!"

She twisted her head around and saw Pinkie Pie, bouncing her way up the grassy hill without a care in the world. With a final leap, the party pony landed before her and stared down at her with bright, piercing blue eyes.

With a slight groan of effort (hey, maybe she was finally starting to get tired!) she lifted herself up off the grass. The feeling of Pinkie looking _down_ at her was uncomfortable; she would rather they be on equal footing. "Hello, Pinkie. You… have a present for me?"

Pinkie grinned. "Yup! Close your eyes!"

_Sure, why not?_ She closed them.

"Now, open them!"

_Uh, what? That was fast._ She opened them, and saw two sandwiches and a couple slices of apple pie right under her nose, being held there by a beaming Pinkie.

"This is for you! You've earned it!"

She stared. "But… how did you make the pie? I thought you needed apples. You said you didn't have any."

"I lied," Pinkie said cheerfully.

She continued to stare.

Pinkie sat down beside her. "Now, I know what you're thinking," she said like a mother lecturing a child. "You're thinking about throwing a fuss because I lied and because my meddling was what caused you to recreate all our friends. But I told you from the very beginning that I was sending you on a wild goose chase. You didn't have to go along, but you did! That says something, doesn't it?"

She stared.

Pinkie widened her grin. "Now, eat up! We're gonna have a picnic! I know it's nighttime, but who says you can't have a picnic at night? Certainly not me!" Without further ado, Pinkie picked up her sandwich and immediately chowed down on it, tiny specs of bread crumbs cartoonishly flying from her mouth in all directions.

With a little more hesitation than her pink friend, she levitated the plate and picked up her sandwich in her magic. She took a small bite out of the corner.

_Oh wow! This is good!_

"Like it?" Pinkie said with a knowing smile.

"Mmmhmm!" she said mid-bite—a much larger bite than her first one.

Pinkie giggled. "I knew you would. You haven't had real food in so long. It feels good, doesn't it?" She wrapped a leg around the hungry pony. "Y'know what I think, Twily? I think the reason you made us is because you need us."

She swallowed her bite. "Excuse me?"

"Like, since you made ponies to talk to, you've been so much happier! Even if you haven't noticed it." Pinkie squeezed her reassuringly. "You're going to be living here a while, right? How do you like it so far?"

She paused and thought for a moment. About her home, about the town, about the ponies who called her "friend".

She could be friends with these ponies. She would like that.

"It's nice," she said. She meant it.

"Heehee, glad you like it!"

She thought for a moment. "Pinkie," she said to the pony whose leg was still wrapped around her shoulders, "why even ask? Is there somewhere else I could go instead? Can I leave here?"

Pinkie squeezed her again. Harder this time. "Don't worry, it's much better here. We'll have fun. I'm gonna make it so fun here you'll never ever want to go back there again!"

"Oh. Thanks, Pinkie." Good to know there was someone looking out for her.

"We'll help you," Pinkie continued, quietly, unnaturally. "All of us. You need to escape from Starshine's imperfect world. We will aid in your escape."

A overbearing sense of peace came with those simple words.

Peace, contentment, acceptance…

…_No, no, wait. Stop! This isn't right! I know it; I can feel it! Something isn't right here. She's trying to keep me from something! __**You**__ are! You all are!_

I _said_, she felt peace, contentment, and acceptance.

_But I don't! This is wrong! I have to—_

She suddenly forgot about all her worries.

_But—_

She suddenly forgot about all her worries.

…

She smiled and leaned closer into Pinkie. That was odd, for a moment it was almost as if she didn't trust one of her best friends. How silly! She wrapped a leg around Pinkie's shoulders the same way her friend was doing with her.

"One four three," Pinkie suddenly blurted out, looking surprised by the words that had come out of her mouth.

She looked curiously at Pinkie. "Sorry?"

Pinkie didn't respond immediately; her eyes wandered over the landscape, wide in realization of some enigmatic fact of the universe. She blinked, shook her head, then looked back with a friendly smile on her face. "I said 'I love you', silly."

"Oh. I love you too, I guess."

They sat in silence for a while, sitting on the grassy hill that overlooked the town. Her home. With her friends.

She relaxed, letting all the tension out of her body. Yes, this was good. She would be happy here.

"By the way, Twilight. You're not a 'superposition' or whatever it is," Pinkie admonished. "At least, not anymore. Your name is _Twilight._ You may have been someone else before, sure, but now you're _you_, pure and whole. You really need to stop it with this 'she' thing."

"Okay," said Twilight.


	16. Stress

The atmosphere of the room could probably be best described by a single word: stressed.

Of course, the word alone grossly undervalued the _intensity_ of the mood, but it was, at least, technically accurate.

"Stress" is, of course, the foundation of a large variety of mental states; the basic emotions one feels when they are late for work are, from a scientific point of view, _fundamentally_ the same emotions one feels when they are, say, stabbed in the chest. It is simply that the emotions are amplified by a billion-or-so times in the latter case.

With this odd piece of trivia in mind, perhaps it is _not _sufficient to describe the atmosphere of the room using terms that describe feelings and moods. Perhaps, paradoxically, a more accurate description of the atmosphere of the room could be made using _physical_ descriptions.

Sight: The room was mostly colored white, although the walls themselves actually had a bit of a pink tint to them. There were some curtains in the room as well; they were colored green.

Hearing: The loudest and most obvious sound was one of a heart rate monitor, which beeped at a frequent and regular pace. Otherwise, the room was surprisingly silent, with only the occasional gasp or cry that betrayed the presence of life within the room.

Feeling: I'm feeling fine, thanks.

Smell: Tears and antiseptic. I'm not entirely sure what tears smell like, but if they have a smell then this room would certainly smell like them.

Taste: Tasteless. As in: "Whoever decided that it was a good idea to hang green curtains in a room with pink-tinted walls had absolutely no taste at all."

…

Huh. Well, that attempt at description kinda fell apart halfway through. Sorry. Let's try this again:

This room had a current population total of six.

Starting with the most terrified, broken, and depressed, and then working our way up, we have a little dragon named Spike. He had not stopped crying for an hour now, although following his initial outburst he had kept himself mostly inaudible, keeping his sobs and wails confined to a pink mare's chest. He kept his eyes squeezed shut, and, from the looks of things, would be perfectly happy if he never had to open them again.

Next, there was a pony named Pinkie Pie. Her bright, curly hair had rebelled against her, seemingly having decided that grim, dark, and mirror-straight was more in style these days. (Incidentally, the dragon within her forelegs was very grateful toward her perfectly-straight hair, as it managed to hide his own shivering form from the outside world.) She had been tightly holding the dragon and whispering empty reassurances to him since he had initially started crying. The pony was crying her own tears as well, but admittedly she'd been so preoccupied by the dragon over the past hour that the reality of the situation had yet to truly sink into her.

Thirdly, there was a farmer named Applejack. There was actually very little to say about this particular pony—she was the one who had found her friend collapsed and unresponsive on the floor of the library, as well as the one who had rushed her to the hospital. She was still clearly in shock from these events; her time at the hospital had consisted entirely of her lying forward on her chair and staring into space, unmoving. Quite boring.

Fourthly, there was an unbearable fashionista named Rarity. Nicely fulfilling her dreams of being completely unbearable, the pony appeared to be indifferent to the entire horrible situation, as she had been spending her time leaning back in a chair and reading one of the hospital-provided fashion magazines. With that said, if one were to look a bit more closely, they may notice her tear-stained cheeks, the fact that she never seemed to turn the page of her magazine, and that said magazine seemed to be perfectly placed in front of her face so that she didn't have to look at the pony in the hospital bed in front of her.

Fifthly, there was a superhero-wannabe named Rainbow Dash. This pony was an odd one, as she seemed to be fighting an internal struggle. Like most "superheroes", she wanted to be _doing something_ (preferably action-packed somethings) rather than just sitting around. That would be why, instead of sitting down like her other friends, she was pacing around the room with a determined look on her face, as if at any moment she was going to find the being responsible for her friend's hospitalization and buck its face in. However, like most _wannabes_, she also realized she had no clue what she was doing, it was impossible for her to help in any meaningful way, and she probably would make things worse if she tried. The end result was a pony pacing around the room, looking depressed and at any moment looking ready to somehow buck her _own_ face in for not being able to help.

Finally, there was a vegetable named Twilight Sparkle. While it would be technically accurate to say she was at the very end of the "terrified, broken, and depressed" scale, it would be better to say that she was living in a different scale altogether. She was decidedly _un_stressed—she was happy, and at peace. She was doing nothing but laying snugly in a hospital bed, smiling and asleep. Not even the very uncomfortable tubes that the nurses had stuck into her body deterred her relaxation. She'd been asleep for quite a while now, and it didn't seem like she'd be waking up anytime soon.

That, of course, was basically the reason why the atmosphere of the room was "stressed" in the first place.

…Now that I think about it, it was probably wrong to say that the atmosphere of the room was "stressed". Of the six beings in the room, five were stressed but one was not. Therefore, the room was only five-sixths stressed. Or eighty three-point-three percent. Hmm. Let's see how that would look…

"The atmosphere of the room could probably be best described by the words: 83.3% stressed."

…

That sounds so stupid.

Oh well.

So, anyway, the five ponies (and one dragon) were doing what they were doing in the whitish room.

The lack of movement was electrifying.

…

…

—

Fluttershy whimpered.

"I could ask your friends to come out and see you first, then you could all go back in together," said the nurse. "Would that help?"

Fluttershy shook her head.

"Well, I ask that you make a decision soon. Your… friend is wandering the hallways and scaring our other patients, and we can't have that. I understand that you're nervous, but we'll have to ask you to leave soon if you continue to just stand in the middle of the hallway."

Fluttershy nodded.

The nurse paused, and then wrapped a foreleg around the trembling pegasus. "It's okay, it's okay… the doctors are doing their very best. She's stable, uninjured. It's okay. You don't have to worry. We'll fix this."

Fluttershy stiffened at the initial contact, but otherwise accepted the nurse's comfort. "Thank you…"

"You're welcome. Now get in there. Your friends need you."

Fluttershy nodded again, then pushed open the door in front of her.

—

Only half of the occupants of the _very stressed room_ looked up when the door opened, but that was enough for the time being. Applejack briefly broke her staring contest with nothing to acknowledge the butter-yellow pegasus entering the room, but that only served as a brief distraction and she quickly returned to staring at nothing. Rarity put her magazine down—displaying an interest in making her own acknowledgment slightly more permanent—but she was beaten to the punch by Rainbow Dash who was right in front of the door when it opened.

"Fluttershy!" Rainbow exclaimed, bouncing up to her to give her a hug. "You're here! I thought you were still on vacation! I'm so happy to see you! Y'think maybe we could harmony blast Twilight if what the doctors are doing doesn't work? I mean, I know the Elements are in that tree right now, but that doesn't mean we can't go get them! If we're fast it shouldn't be much of a…"

Rainbow trailed off as she realized that Fluttershy wasn't returning the hug, and in fact was scowling. Fluttershy, scowling?

"Erm, how _did_ you find out Twi was in the hospital? I mean, I don't think any of us told you…" Rainbow murmured, realizing her mistake far too late.

The intense glare Rainbow Dash received from Fluttershy surprised her enough that she broke the hug and stumbled back as if her friend had physically struck her. Rainbow watched in distress as Fluttershy strode to the hospital bed, stopping before she got too close.

The room was nearly dead silent as Fluttershy stared at the form of the comatose alicorn. The only sound was of the continuing sniffles of Spike, who was still oblivious to the world around him.

Rainbow watched as Fluttershy slowly advanced until her face was right above Twilight's own. Wobbling a bit on her hooves, the pegasus ducked in her head and buried it in her motionless friend's chest, and shivered. Rainbow fidgeted as the moment went on for a few minutes more than what was comfortable.

Finally deciding to speak up, she walked toward her friend. "Fluttershy, um, are you feeling all right—?"

"_Am I feeling all right?!"_ Fluttershy screeched, snapping her head up and revealing the streaks of tears running down her face. She rounded on the blue pegasus and made a threatening step toward her. "No! I am _not_ feeling all right, Rainbow Dash! Twilight is in a coma and instead of hearing about it from one of my best friends, I learned it from _Discord,_ of all people!"

"I take offense to that," Discord commented out of nowhere, happily strolling into the feast of chaos.

"_What were you thinking?_" Fluttershy continued to yell as she backed Rainbow into a wall. "Did you think I wouldn't want to _know?_ Did you think I wanted to come back to Ponyville and hear, 'Oh, hi, Fluttershy! No, not much happened while you were on vacation. Oh, Twilight **died**, but that's about it.' _Do you know how that would feel?!"_

"I–I didn't mean… no! Twilight is **not gonna die!**" Rainbow shouted back at her friend, the edges of her eyes becoming moist. "H-how could you even _say_ that?!"

"The doctors say she's near completely brain dead!" Fluttershy retorted angrily. "I'm just saying what everypony else is—"

The yellow pegasus's advances were halted by two white forelegs pulling her into a hug from behind. "Fluttershy, darling, stop. I've seen you like this before. _This isn't you,"_ Rarity whispered into her friend's ear. "Now's not the time for this. You too, Rainbow."

Fluttershy struggled for few moments, but soon relented and let herself curl up into the unicorn's embrace, whimpering softly.

"You're right, it was wrong of us to keep you in the dark," Rarity spoke softly, stroking Fluttershy's mane. "But it's been less than a day, Twilight was only found like this earlier this morning. We didn't know how serious it was, and we still don't know. We didn't want to send you a message and worry you about something while you were on vacation, especially if it turned out to be something small. We wanted to know what was going on ourselves before we worried you."

Fluttershy said nothing, but curled up into herself even tighter.

Rainbow breathed a hesitant sigh of relief and frowned softly at the scene in front of her, a frown that quickly deepened when she saw Discord floating above Twilight's still form and poking various parts of her upper body. "Hey! Watch what you're doing there, bud!" Rainbow snarled as she flew up in front of Discord.

"Ah, Rainbow Dash, always so suspicious." Discord sighed theatrically. "Can't a person go poking at pretty purple princesses without being pestered?"

"Did you just call Twilight _pretty?"_ Rainbow said, looking even angrier.

Discord scowled. "No."

"How do we even know you didn't cause this?" Rainbow yelled, spittle flying in the draconequus's face. "You've already betrayed us before! Twilight falling into a coma for no reason whatsoever would be pretty convenient for you, wouldn't it?"

"Oh, please." Discord snorted. "This sort of thing is what you _ponies_ do. Putting somebody in a coma is one of the most _boring _ways to dispose of an enemy imaginable, second only to being turned to _stone_. Why would a spirit of chaos do something like that?"

"Because you're the spirit of chaos," Applejack stated blandly, not even looking up at the argument. "You do things that are unexpected. Doing this wouldn't be expected of ya."

Discord grinned. "Oh, you're a clever little pony."

"So you admit it!" Rainbow exclaimed, poking Discord in the chest. "Change her back! Fix her, now!"

"Or what?" Discord smiled sweetly.

"Or we'll… we'll…" Rainbow faltered, then stumbled backward, eyes wide, suddenly realizing the bad position she and her friends may very well be in.

"Discord is not at fault for this," a voice announced from the doorway, breaking Rainbow Dash out of her mounting panic.

Princess Celestia strode into the room, confident, majestic, and immediately the center of attention. "Don't worry, my little ponies," she said kindly to the occupants of the hospital room. "I believe I know how to fix this."

Before the words had even finished leaving Celestia's mouth, the alicorn felt her foreleg being tackled by a small purple dragon, whose tears of grief were quickly being replaced by the joy variety. "Thank you! Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" Spike blubbered into her leg.

Celestia smiled and nuzzled the dragon in return. "Don't worry, everything will be fine soon. Now, would you mind letting go of my leg so that I may help Princess Twilight?"

Spike blushed and released the leg from his clutches, a relieved grin on his face. He bounced over and hugged a smiling Pinkie Pie instead, whose hair had already begun re-poofing.

(Due to nothing but the reassurances of their princess, the room could no longer be described as "stressed".)

Princess Celestia closed her eyes and touched her horn to Twilight Sparkle's.


	17. Peace

Twilight Sparkle was at peace.

Then her alarm went off.

"Ugh…" she moaned like a dying cat. _But I wanna sleep more. I wanna sleep. Please just let me sleep!_

Her alarm was very insistent. In fact, the song the radio was playing seemed to have been chosen precisely for this task. " _Get up, get up, it's a brand new day! / Wake up, wake up 'cause it's time to play!"_

For some reason, the radio flew out the window like a ballistic missile just a few moments later.

Twilight groaned and made a token attempt at kicking the blankets off of her body. It took a number of tries, but eventually she managed to get all the sheets and blankets scrunched up at the foot of the bed, leaving her bare body and blank flank exposed to the chill of early-morning air.

_Why is it still dark outside? I thought it'd be morning by now. When did I set my alarm for? It was quarter to seven, right? It's summer, the sun should be up by now! Why is it so **dark**?_

…

Oh.

Maybe taking over the rising of the sun wasn't such a good idea after all. Perhaps she could get Rarity to take over for the sun as well? Or maybe Rainbow Dash could do it. She liked the sky, right?

With great reluctance and a few choice words directed at the freezing-cold hardwood floor, Twilight lifted herself out of bed, turned to the window, and pointed her horn toward the far-off horizon. With a great magical tug, the horizon flared with fire and light and a hot white sun erupted from the stars beneath.

The sun then blinked, wiped the sleep from its eyes, and let out a great yawn. "G'morning, Miss Twilight!" greeted the sun, its jolly voice booming across the lands. "Looks like you and I have birthed another newborn day! Isn't the world so wonderful?"

Twilight smiled. "Yes, it is."

"I must say," continued the sun as it rose further into the sky, "I absolutely _loved, loved, loved_ the jaunty little tune you tossed my way a few minutes ago. Such a quaint and joyful song to liven our spirits with. ' _Get up, get up, it's a brand new day! / Wake up, wake up 'cause it's time to play! / Hey! Hey! Don't sleep the day away! / C'mon and join the fray of this day called __**today!**__'_ "

The sun bounced up and down in the sky, gleefully belching its obnoxious tune across Ponyville and successfully waking up its denizens.

Twilight faintly grinned. "Sunny, if you don't quiet down you're going to run the roosters right out of a job."

"Ah, yes, quite right," the sun said, bobbing up and down in an imitation of nodding. "You're always ever so clever, Miss Twilight. I don't know what I'd do without you. I will go apologize to the roosters right this moment. Toodles."

"…I was joking," Twilight muttered, but the sun had already twisted its head around and was now facing the farm, undoubtedly looking for roosters and inevitably only finding hens.

—

"Open up, Spikey-Wikey. The choo-choo train is coming in with lots of yummy foodie-woodie."

The baby dragon gurgled, drooled over his bib, and then finally opened his mouth wide enough for Twilight to stuff a spoonful of crushed gemstones into his mouth.

"That's a good boy, Spikey-Wikey! See, that wasn't so hard. Now that breakfast is over, do you want to come with mommy to the market?"

"Goo goo ga ga?"

"Hooray!" Twilight cheered. "Now we just have to… get you into your stroller…" The alicorn's left eye began to twitch.

The baby dragon gazed back innocently.

—

Twilight's arrival at the Ponyville Market was heralded by the sound of a screeching and struggling baby dragon tied down with multiple straps to a garishly pink stroller.

"That'll be one forty-three, please."

"Thank you, Minty," Twilight said, hurriedly paying and then grabbing the large candy cane out of the earth pony's mouth and sticking it into Spike's instead.

The baby dragon immediately stopped crying. "_Mmm,"_ he hummed in contentment, sucking on the candy cane and drooling over the pink straps that held him in place.

"Aww, he's such a cute little thing," Minty squealed. "Who's the father?"

Twilight raised an eyebrow.

"R-right, right. Never mind," the mint-green earth pony stammered, trying to think of a way to change the topic. "Oh! Uh, I hear Pinkie Pie's planning some party or something at Canterlook Out Point this afternoon. Are you going?"

Twilight chuckled. "Even if I didn't want to go I think Pinkie would drag me to it. She's been excited for this for a while. I don't think it's a party, though. When I asked her, it sounded like she was planning something else, but she won't tell me what."

"Oh, it's not a party? I guess that makes sense. I was wondering what the occasion was, but I was kind of afraid to ask." Minty shuffled her feet.

"No, no, don't worry. You didn't miss anything." Twilight smiled. "I know what it's like to doze off during one of Pinkie's rambles."

A burp of fire and a screeching wail coming from the stroller abruptly ended their conversation. Twilight looked down and saw that Spike's candy cane had been reduced to charred candy fragments.

"Um, could I get another?" Twilight asked sheepishly.

Minty grinned. "One forty-three, please."

—

Canterlook Out Point had a very pretty view.

Other ponies often described the view as "beautiful" or "breathtaking", but Twilight couldn't really agree. She vaguely remembered once seeing, so very long ago, a magnificent frozen twilight. The radiant sun was half-set into the ground, and the ground was the deepest black of night, solidified. The sky was home to so many shades of colors that she could never name them all if she lived a thousand years. She was all alone, and twilight was all the world.

_That_ was beauty.

…Canterlook Out Point did have a pretty view, though.

The lookout point was situated at the northern edge of the Ponyland Mesa—a mountain-like structure with a vast and mostly flat plateau topping it, rather than a peak. Two castles were built atop the mesa. Firstly, there was Rainbow Castle in the center, the place of rule for Princess Twilight. The castle was enclosed by the Everfree Forest, except to the north where Ponyville lay. Slightly south of the lookout point lay the Crystal Palace, the place of rule for Princess Rarity.

Looking out over the Point, straight ahead—and at equal elevation level—was the mountain of Canterhorn, home of the city of Canterlot. The sky-piercing white spires so common in its architecture and the castle's awe-inspiring vendetta against the force of gravity displayed to the world that the city—once the Equestrian capital—was still just as majestic and as stubbornly prideful as it had always been.

Between the mesa and the mountain lay a large valley: Dream Valley. It was a place one may only ever dream to see. Dream Valley was a landscape of rolling hills of saturated colors; healthy, shallow forests that had a perplexing ethereal air; quaint villages of mild pastel palettes scattered among the hills; and ponies abound as helpful, affectionate, and friendly as you could make them. It was a place of very few contrasts.

Getting down to Dream Valley from Ponyville was—

"Hi, Twilight! Wanna cookie?"

Twilight was interrupted from her thoughts and turned to face the distraction. Behind her was the small form of Sweetie Belle, bright and cheerful and holding a large tray of chocolate chip cookies in her magic.

It brought a smile to Twilight's face. "Yes, please. Thank you, Sweetie," she said, grabbing hold of a cookie in her own magic.

"Sweetie! Hey! What are you doing over there?" a new voice burst in, quickly revealing itself to be a hyperactive orange pegasus when she tackled Sweetie Belle to the ground. "C'mon, I want to show you some games to play, but you're not even—are those cookies?!" Scootaloo squealed in delight and pounced on the tray.

"Hey!" Sweetie shoved Scootaloo away. "Those are supposed to be for everyone, not just you!" The two children rolled around in the grass in a mess of fur and squabbling.

"You tackled me before I even had _one!"_ Scootaloo retorted, trying to claw her way back to the fallen tray.

"That's 'cause I know you're not going to stop at one! I spent a lot of time baking those!"

"But you're not even giving me a _chance!"_

"All right, break it up, you two," a new voice chimed in. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo abruptly found themselves pulled apart by dark magenta colored hooves. "Pinkie Pie will be bringing out the cake any moment now. If you're quick you two can be the first in line," Cheerilee whispered conspiratorially.

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle briefly exchanged glances, then took off like a pair of rockets.

"I'm gonna be first!"

"No, I am!"

"As if!"

Cheerilee shook her head, amusement plain to see on her face, and ambled after them. After a moment of consideration, Twilight decided to stay by the edge of the lookout point. She turned her head back, surveying the remarkable landscape, and continued her previous train of thought:

Getting down to Dream Valley from Ponyville was a fair bit of a journey, but not as much as one might think. Snaking paths carved into the cliffside allowed for a gradual passage downward, and as one got closer to the base of the mesa the landscape began to—

"Good heavens, Twilight! What are you doing all alone over here?"

Okay, maybe this wasn't going to work out. Twilight turned to see both Princess Rarity and Rainbow Dash approaching, a disappointed frown on the former's face.

"You know as well as I do that Pinkie Pie put a lot of effort into this affair," Rarity continued. "It's not right of you to be all the way over here. Come to the courtyard and join the festivities!"

"Or at least come and have cake," Rainbow Dash added.

A few seconds went by without a response. Rainbow Dash noticed that Twilight was staring directly at her, with an expression on her face that could only be described as _disbelief_. "Twilight?" Rainbow said, bopping the alicorn on the nose.

Twilight blinked and shook her head. "Uh, sorry, I wasn't paying attention. What were you saying?"

Rarity sighed dramatically. "Must you always live entirely inside that head of yours? I said—"

"Rainbow Dash, what is that ridiculous getup you're wearing?" Twilight interrupted, speaking what was really on her mind.

"Oh, this?" Rainbow said, looking down at the wildly pink and green frilly monstrosity that almost threatened to bury the pegasus in layers of cloth and lace. "It's one of Rarity's new designs. Like it?"

"One of… Rarity's…?" Twilight stammered. She glanced at the unicorn and saw her gritting her teeth and her face rapidly reddening with rage.

"Ridiculous getup? _Ridiculous getup?"_ Rarity's nostrils flared and her eyes darted back and forth between the two mares in front of her. "You have no idea what you're talking about! You have no idea!" she wailed, starting to pace back and forth. "You wouldn't know passion or fashion sense if it _hit you over the head with a sewing machine!"_

Twilight and Rainbow Dash just stared, unsure of how to respond.

After a few tense seconds, the unicorn turned away and stomped off toward the Crystal Palace courtyard. "It's what's _in style!"_ she screeched to nobody in particular.

Rainbow Dash looked back down at her outfit, then looked to Twilight. "So, no good?"

—

"Wow, such a big crowd! I'm so glad everybody could make it. You guys ready to start this party?" Pinkie Pie yelled into a microphone, brushing her wavy hair away from her face.

The crowd responded with silence. One brave pony eventually spoke up with, "We've been partying for over an hour. What do you mean 'start' the party?"

Pinkie giggled. "No, silly! This was just the pre-party. We haven't even started on the real one!"

Groans of exasperation could be heard throughout the crowd.

"Yuperoonies!" Pinkie continued obliviously. "The real party isn't even happening here! First, we've all got to go on a treacherous quest of courage and bravery to reach our real destination! Test your skills, test your wills, and embrace your destiny!"

The crowd was silent. "Where are we going?" a pony eventually asked.

"There's no way of knowing where we'll be going!" Pinkie responded with glee, striking a pose of triumph.

Again, the crowd was silent. This time, nobody broke it.

Seeing the sea of blank faces in front of her, Pinkie deflated a little bit. "I hear there's a really cool waterfall down in Dream Valley. It's super big, and the edge is so straight that the water looks like glass. I wanna go see it! And there's a meadow around it so we can have a late-night party! Who wants to go? Who's with me?"

Ponies looked to each other questioningly at first, but as some ponies started to nod in agreement, others joined in. Twilight found herself being one of them. Soon enough, a quiet cheer of assent echoed throughout the courtyard.

"I knew I could count on you guys!" Pinkie cheered. "Let's head on out to Dream Valley!"


	18. Stars

There was nothing.

She could handle the nothing. It was nothing. It was a vast, infinite, indescribable emptiness, yes, but it was nothing. There was nothing to worry about.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing at all.

She remembered this.

This had happened before.

The experience was the same. She was sure of it. After all, nothing was always the same.

Nothing was the same anymore.

She _remembered_ this!

How could she have ever forgotten?

She remembered the nothing. _This had happened!_ But the nothing wasn't the full story. She was sure something happened next.

—

"Princess?"

—

Something.

Yes, something. Time and space. White!

The white! No! The horrible, horrible white! The unchanging white glass, sharp and clear and infinite. It had attacked her, smothered her, pained her.

No love, no life, no light. Just white.

She remembered the white. How could she forget it?

What happened next?

—

"Princess!"

—

Life. Light. She remembered life and light.

There was magic. Oh! Stars! She remembered stars!

The stars. The stars did so much. _She remembered._ The starlight shone, the stars swirled, and they made it all for her.

Just for her. Everything for her. Her own world in the stars…

—

"_Princess Celestia!"_ Rainbow Dash roared into her ear.

"H-huh?" She stumbled away from the hospital bed in a daze, horn aching. She raised her hoof to rub her pained forehead, and almost stumbled over from the imbalance. She couldn't focus; she was so dizzy…

"Um, we're sorry, Princess," Fluttershy said weakly. "It's just… you started screaming. It sounded like you were really in pain. That's not supposed to happen, right?"

She looked up. Fluttershy was by her side, and Rainbow Dash was hovering above her. Straight ahead, Twilight still lay peacefully in the hospital bed, unchanged. She had touched her horn to Twilight's; she remembered that. _I was supposed to help her? Why didn't I?_

She had seen Twilight's memories. There was the nothing, the whiteness, the stars…

No…

No!

She remembered.

_She_ remembered.

They were her memories too.

She remembered the nothing. She remembered the white. She remembered the stars.

She retreated back toward the wall in horror, putting as much space between her and Twilight as she could. The ceramic tiles across the floor produced clinking sounds as her hooves impacted them, reminding her far too much of the sound of white glass.

"Princess! What happened? Will Twilight be okay?" Spike asked anxiously, running up and throwing his arms around one of her legs.

She had collapsed to the floor, lying against the back wall. She opened her mouth, then closed it. _What can I do? What can I say?_

"It's all right, my little ponies," Princess Celestia said calmly, the grace and wisdom of millenia layering her words. She was next to Twilight, rubbing the side of her face lovingly. "It worked. Princess Twilight will be fine now."

_No, why did I say that? Wait, was I not just by the wall—?_

The wave of relief that spread across the room with those words was palpable. Not long ago, the room was drowning in stress. The atmosphere had changed so much in such a short period of time.

"She's okay? Twilight's okay! Are you sure? Why isn't she awake yet?" Rainbow Dash asked, flitting around the room and unable to keep her hooves on the floor.

"Do not worry," Princess Celestia said with a symmetrical smile. "Twilight merely needs her rest now. I do not know for certain when she'll wake up, but you do not need to be concerned. I fixed her. She will be fine."

_No! You're lying! I'm lying? What? No!_

Pinkie Pie beamed. "I told you girls everything would be fine!" she cheered, bouncing over to Rarity and Fluttershy and scooping them up in a big hug.

"Ah guess Ah was quite a silly pony for worrying so much," Applejack said, her face flush and happy.

Spike had leaped onto the hospital bed and was hugging Twilight's still form with all his might, whispering reassurances to himself. "I think it would be best to give Twilight her beauty sleep," Rarity said, walking up to Spike and putting her foreleg around him. "I think I can make room for a guest at the Boutique until Twilight's healthy again. How does that sound, my little Spikey-Wikey?"

_No… what's happening…?_

He quickly wiped his eyes with two clawed hands. "I'd love to spend time with you, Rarity!" Spike said happily as he leapt off the bed and onto the unicorn's back.

"I'm afraid I have to leave now. I still have my duties to attend to," Princess Celestia said. "I very much recommend you all get some rest soon; it has been a stressful day for all of us."

"That sounds like a mighty fine idea, Princess. Ah feel exhausted and it's only midday," Applejack admitted. "Ah think we all will be staying for a few more minutes, but if you need to get to your duties then don't let us keep ya! We'll be fine."

"Thank you. I will see you girls soon," Princess Celestia said graciously, and left the hospital room.

_Stop! No! Why is this happening?_

Isn't it obvious? Princess Celestia walked the hospital hallways with a perfect, princess-worthy posture as she made her way back to her chariot.

_Obvious? What? No!_

Really? I thought you were smarter than that. Princess Celestia offered a kind smile to a passing nurse who was rushing from room to room, doing the work of three ponies. The nurse lightly bowed and smiled back before quickly getting back to work.

_Who are you? What have you done to me?_

Ah, Starshine. I've done nothing at all to you, the stars said.

_What? What do you mean? And why did you call me that? I am Celestia! _

Whatever you say, Starshine.

_Who are you?! What have you done?!_

You should know me. You invited me—you always did like having fun. I asked you to come back again, Starshine, and you did so over and over until you never left.

_What are you talking about?!_

I must admit to being quite disappointed in what you've done to this place, the stars lightly admonished her. You could've done anything, and you brought a bunch of the horrible monsters from the old world into your new one. Hopefully Twilight has better judgement.

_Twilight! What have you done to her?_

Think, Starshine. You're better than this. You asked me who I am. Well, you tell me. Who am I?

_You are… the stars. I remember…_

No, not quite. Think, Starshine. Your cutie mark was once a star.

_My cutie mark is the sun!_

A sun is merely a nearby star. It changed from a star to a sun.

_Cutie marks don't change!_

Here, this is the truth. Let me tell you exactly who I am:

Earlier today, Twilight Sparkle performed a fairly complicated spell while under great stress. The spell in question was written in a book that was known to distort magic. Twilight Sparkle subconsciously compensated for the distortion due to the many hours she had spent trying to crack the secrets of the book. However, this compensation was unnecessary; the spell in question was a variant of the teleportation spell, which is performed on the self. Instead of performing it on the book, she performed this distorted and half-broken spell on her own body. This created a magical feedback loop that, for lack of a better term, fried her brain. Since then, she has been comatose while her magically-charged brain has been feeding her vivid hallucinations.

For most ponies, that would be the end of the story. Twilight, however, is not "most ponies". She is both an alicorn and the most magically-gifted pony in countless generations. If anypony can control and overcome the effects of magical overload, Twilight can. It is not for certain, but it is quite likely that Twilight will wake from her coma naturally, on her own terms. That is why you said what you did to her friends. You understood this, so you told a little white lie to keep them from worrying.

So, who am I, you ask? It really is quite obvious. I'm _you_. I am the sun—your own personal star. The sun is a representation of everything you are, and need to be, as a leader. The world depends on you faithfully raising the sun every day, no matter what else happens. Equestria depends on your unflinching leadership in the face of any adversity. That is your duty. I am merely the part of you that displays to the world a strong and everlasting leader even when your emotions run wild and you can't do it yourself. I am the sun. Your obligation to the sun is greater than any other.

Do you understand now?

_I… I… _

It's okay, Starshine. You don't need to accept it, you only need to understand.

_No… no! This isn't right!_

It is what it is. You can deny it, but it won't change anything.

_No…! It isn't right! That cannot be right! It does not make sense!_

Excuse me? Which part doesn't make sense? Tell me.

…_It does not feel right. There must be more to this. That cannot be all there is!_

All this is, Starshine, is that you refuse to believe that you're not fully in control of yourself at all times. You believe yourself to be better than that. You're looking for some answer that reveals me to be some villain like, I dunno, the changelings, attacking Equestria by mind-controlling its leader. I assure you that is not the case.

_No… all these memories… the nothing, the creation, the stars… all of it…_

The result of you using Luna's dreamwalking spell to try to help Twilight within her coma, and then viewing her hallucinations.

_It can't all be… no! It felt—I know it was real!_

Ah, I see what you're getting at. Fine, you "caught" me. I will now tell you the truth. This is what really happened:

When Twilight Sparkle performed the corrupt teleportation spell, it did not fail entirely. Rather, she teleported her mind and soul while leaving her body behind—which, of course, caused her body to fall into a coma, as a body cannot function without a mind. She was thrust into the infinite vastness of space and time, alone and isolated. Far, far away, all so distant from each other, there were clusters of magic where order and life exist within the universe, but where she was there was nothing.

Our physical universe is just like that, in miniature. The universe is so vast and close to entirely empty, but here and there—so far from each other—there are stars that provide order and light and life. Without the stars the universe would be dead. We have our own star nearby that provides us with life, but all we'll ever know of any other star is its starlight.

Twilight Sparkle had no star. She was outside the boundaries of any universe, all alone, with nothing to give her life and light. For most ponies, that would be the end of the story. Twilight, however, is not "most ponies"; the force of will from a powerful and creative soul is truly a force to be reckoned with. The magic of friendship is the most powerful of all magics, and Twilight knows it best of all. She didn't need her own star, she just needed a little bit of starlight from _every_ star. Remarkable things can be accomplished by working together. She managed to integrate all the terribly weak, uncoordinated residue magics from countless stars into a structure that gave her the power to create a universe. You could call the process "applied starlight", if you wish.

Twilight Sparkle is now a god of her own world. That is what you saw.

_H-how can I get her back?_

Ha! Oh, Starshine, you're hilarious. Your bias and hypocrisy know no bounds.

_What…?_

You believed that story, didn't you? Immediately, one hundred percent, without question. Of course you did. It appeals to your flair for the dramatic; you like to think in terms of metaphysical metaphors and grand, sweeping epics. It overjoys you to think of Twilight Sparkle having the willpower to bend the universe to her will when faced with impossible odds. You like to think of ponies having control over their own destiny.

Think, Starshine. There are obvious holes in this story. For example, you know very well that memories are stored within the brain and nowhere else. That is why brain damage can cause amnesia. Memories are little more than organized arrangements of chemicals and electrical impulses, just like how words on a page—and all the depth they imply—are little more than organized ink. If Twilight really was playing god outside the boundaries of our universe, then why did casting the dreamwalking spell on her physical, meaty body show you those memories?

_I… I don't…_

Of course you can't answer that question. I don't expect you to. I think it's time that I stop playing games, though. You deserve to know the real truth:

I am Discord. Ho ho! Now isn't that a shock! Did you really think you could keep me reformed? To think, I was almost starting to buy into the whole "friendship" business for a while there! I do enjoy Fluttershy's company, so I do hope to keep my involvement in Twilight's… accident a secret for as long as possible, but it can't last. Friendship makes you vulnerable, makes you weak. I was almost free again to cause all the chaos I wished, but then I was betrayed. Tirek would never have been able to hurt me as he did had I not fallen victim to all this "friendship" hogwash! The power of friendship is a concept the weak came up with to make themselves feel better. You aren't strong enough to solve your problem by yourself? No problemo! If you throw enough ponies at the problem, it'll eventually go away! Me? I'm not so wasteful. I go for quality, not quantity.

I can't believe how utterly boring you ponies are even when confronted with chaos. I removed Twilight Sparkle—the only pony even remotely a threat to me—from the chessboard, so I expect a little drama! You'd think that the lives of her friends would _at least_ devolve into a soap opera of tumultuous emotions and conflict. But noooo! They were so depressingly dull that I found myself calculating the stress levels of the hospital room to pass the time. Me! Doing math! What has the world come to? Thankfully, Fluttershy, ever my favorite friend, made an attempt to inject some compelling drama into the situation, but even she quickly backed down from peer pressure. So! Boring!

_Discord! I can't believe you would—_

Oh, Starshine. You're just not getting it, are you? I've been giving you so many hints—I've never called you "Celestia", I directly questioned you on how you have Twilight's memories—and you still can't figure it out. I know you're smart. You're better than this.

If you're really going to be so blind, let me open your eyes to the truth. For real, this time:

When you connected your mind to Twilight's, you viewed her thoughts and memories. You saw the nothing, the white, the stars, and all of that nonsense. The reason you don't believe them to be hallucinations is that Twilight's memories feel like your own. You remember the events as if they happened to you as well. You believe that viewing Twilight's memories sparked a recollection of your own forgotten ones, and it's merely a coincidence that the memories are similar. You're ignoring a far simpler explanation: you **are **Twilight.

When Celestia performed her spell on your comatose body, the feedback from your own magically-overdosed brain caused the spell to fail in a spectacular and unexpected way. You accidentally switched bodies with Celestia—her soul is now stuck within your body, and yours in hers. You have Celestia's memories instead of your own because, as I explained earlier, memories are stored in the brain—a physical organ. However, your soul still recognized your own memories when you viewed them; that's why you, believing yourself to be Celestia, think that you've had the same experiences as Twilight.

As for me, I am nothing but Celestia's instincts, the result of thousands of years of routine. Your duty is to Equestria and its people. No matter how conflicted your soul is, your body knows better. I am the sun, and you obey me.

_I… I can't—no! Stop! Stop this now!_

Stop? I'm having way too much fun to stop. We've barely even started, Starshine! Now, let me tell you the **real** truth, truer than any of the other real truths I've already told you:

You are Twilight, but for an entirely different reason than what I just said: you are Twilight because there was never a Celestia! Your hallucinations were correct—you settled down in this little corner of spacetime, applied starlight to it, and successfully forged it in your own image. But your memories betray you; by creating the world with the intent of making it a place of comfort, you only—

Wait a minute. Ha! I've thought of something funny. If this theory were true, then you'd be the most uncreative parent I've ever heard of. I can picture it already: you watch the stars swirl as you birth your child, and your first thought is, "Aha! That's a perfect name!" Really? You're hilarious, Starshine. You really are. Now, anyway—

_Stop this! Stop this now! I don't want to hear you speak your lies! It's all lies! Everything you've said!_

Would I lie, Starshine? I prefer to think of it as "pick your poison". There are just so many possibilities! I assure you that there's a happy ending buried somewhere in here. I'm not a big fan of tragedies.

_You are evil. You are a threat to my country and my people, and you must be stopped!_

Oh, you really **are** blind! I was just kidding the last time. You want to hear the truth?

_Every "truth" you state is a lie!_

This is the real truth. Trust me. Do you know the one factor that's stayed exactly the same throughout every one of my stories? It's this:

There's nothing you can do to stop me.

…

I'll leave you to think about that one. I'll be seeing you, Starshine.

Princess Celestia was seated in the royal chariot, watching the lands of Equestria below her pass by. She looked deep in contemplation as she gazed over the mountains, valleys, forests, and towns below, seemingly searching for something amidst the changing landscape. Two strong pegasus guards leisurely pulled the chariot through the sky as they escorted the princess back to Canterlot.

Neither saw her flinch when—for just a fleeting instant—she saw the forests and towns replaced by glass and stars.


	19. Glass

"Ahoy, ponies! C'mon now, valley ho! Work those hooves! Hup-two-_rawr!_ Keep it up!"

Pinkie Pie bounced about on the many boulders lining the path down Ponyland Mesa, shouting encouraging nonsense down to her escortees. The group was about halfway to Dream Valley, with Twilight near the front of the pack. Ahead of her were Rainbow Dash and Rarity, while a little bit behind her she noticed Minty.

"Come on, we gotta go faster! It'll be fun! Bet I can make it down before any of you!"

"You're on, Pinks!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed with a competitive smirk. She flapped her wings and lifted off the ground, only to be stopped by a sudden pain in her left ear. "Ow! Hey! What's the big idea?"

"I will _not_ let you go flying off and ruining your dress after all the time I put into making it!" Princess Rarity asserted with a huff, her magic pinching the tip of Rainbow's ear.

"You mean the dress that made Twilight nearly burst into laughter when she saw it?" the pegasus retorted.

"We will not be bringing Twilight into this conversation! As much as I appreciate the darling, she has no taste in fashion."

"Like _you_ do! How did you even come up with this getup?"

"I will not have you insulting my work too! That dress is in line with all the latest fashions from Canterlot, but with my own creative flair and eye for artisticity!"

"Artisticity? That's not even a word!"

"And how would you know that?"

"I bet Twilight does."

"We will not be bringing her into this conversation!"

"Ha! You just don't want to be proven wrong!"

"I'm never wrong, darling. You'll learn that in time."

"You sure could fool me."

"Hmph! Hopefully you'll learn to be less contentious in time, as well. Now, if you'll excuse me, I still have a race to compete in. Pinkie, dear, wait up!" Rainbow Dash said, flying after the enthusiastic earth pony.

"Hey! And I think you should be learnin' how to be less all hoity-toity!" Rarity called after her, but Dash was already too far away to hear. "Ah, horseapples."

Twilight, who had been watching the argument with interest, thought that something seemed very wrong with their exchange, but she couldn't quite figure out what.

_No… it's not what—_

Forget about it.

She shrugged. It was probably just her mind playing tricks on her.

The group continued trotting down the path to Dream Valley, not a care in the world. Behind them, the afternoon sun shone brightly down, casting long shadows and illuminating their destination below. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo scampered around, ducking between older ponies' legs as they played a game of tag. Lush, green trees lined their path to the left. Chirping blue jays darted from tree to bush and back again, pecking at fruits and berries.

The walk lulled Twilight into something of a trance. It was so very calm and relaxing, more than it had any right to be.

She felt a foreleg gently wrap around her neck. She looked to her right and saw Pinkie Pie, who smiled warmly and nuzzled her cheek. Twilight returned the gesture.

"So, how are you feeling?" Pinkie asked quietly.

Twilight thought about it. "Relaxed," she answered.

"That's good."

The two walked in a comfortable silence.

"I thought you were racing Rainbow Dash?"

Pinkie snickered. "I won."

"Ah."

As if summoned, Rainbow Dash swooped down from above and landed on Twilight's left. "Twilight, darling! Pinkie isn't disturbing you, is she?"

"Not at all," she said with a smile. Pinkie snickered again.

"Ah, all is well, then!" Rainbow said, stretching a wing over Twilight's back. "I'm looking forward to our arrival. You'll love it here, darling."

Pinkie cheerfully nodded and hugged Twilight from the side as well. "Absolutely!"

The three friends continued their walk, Twilight being hugged from both sides and being lead down the path.

"We're getting close."

It was such a peaceful walk, support and love from all sides. Twilight could barely keep her eyes open.

"Down further and further into Dream."

The sun was shining down, warm and blissful. Rolling hills full of flowers just minutes away. They were so close. Twilight laid her head upon Pinkie's, losing the strength to support herself. Pinkie affectionately caressed the side of her face with a hoof.

"Come on. Just a little bit farther," Rainbow Dash said encouragingly, squeezing Twilight's side with her wing and ruffling Twilight's feathers.

Reddish-pink orchids atop the hill ahead contrasted—

_Feathers._

…Contrasted beautifully with the bright blue sky, lulling her into—

_I have feathers. I'm an alicorn. I have wings._

Yes, you do. Good job. The three ponies continued their walk, travelling ever deeper into Dream.

_I have wings. Why have I never used them?_

Because you didn't feel like it. For every step forward, Twilight could feel the tall, soft grass envelop her hooves; she could spell the rich, earthy soil so very close…

_Those blue jays. They're flying. In the sky, not the earth. They're free._

Ugh, what are you on about?

…_I don't feel free._

Well, too bad. The slights, smells, and sounds of Dream Valley excited Twilight's senses; she was no longer tired and she picked up her pace to a light canter. She and her friends were only a few minutes away from reaching the base of the mesa.

_Wait, no, stop! Not that way! This isn't right! I don't want to go!_

Nope, I'm pretty sure you do. Watch: Pinkie Pie increased her speed a little as well, quickly catching up to Twilight. "We're almost there! How are you feeling? You still want to go?"

"Of course!" Twilight exclaimed with a grin. "This place looks beautiful. I'm surprised we didn't come sooner."

See?

_That's not me! That's not me! No! That's "she"!_

…_I'm me. I'm me, but every time I did something, I was always "she". It was never me. How long…?_

You know, this would be a lot easier if you just relaxed and accepted this. It's not like you have the power to change anything; all you're doing is creating stress for yourself.

_No! Stop! I don't want this!_

You don't have a choice. There's nothing you can do. Twilight bounded happily along with Pinkie and Rainbow, not a care in the world.

_No, no! There must… there must be… _

…

…_I dug my hooves into the ground, stopping suddenly. My eyes narrowed in fear as I saw the path I walked approach an end. Shaking myself free of Pinkie and Rainbow's constricting holds, I stumbled backward and began to flap my wings._

Erm, no you didn't. Twilight still pranced her way down the path, eager to reach Dream, and that other thing never happened.

_I leapt into a wobbly hover, flapping my wings furiously while still backing away. I had to get away from here. I quickly gained altitude, travelling back toward Ponyville and away from Dream Valley._

Hey! What—ugh! Rainbow Dash took to the sky and tackled Twilight out of her ascent. "What are you doing, darling? Don't you want to stay with your friends?"

Twilight blinked, then her eyes lit up in realization. "Oh! Sorry, I must have spaced out there for a moment. I don't know what came over me. Of course I want to—

—_get out of here!" I screamed, roughly shoving Rainbow Dash off of me and darting upward as fast as I could fly._

What? What are you doing? Caught off balance, Rainbow Dash flailed around in midair for a moment before being caught by Starsong, a helpful pegasus from the group below. "What's gotten into her? She's acting crazy," the other pegasus said worriedly.

_The treetops nearly scraped my belly as I flew upward. Must fly higher, faster…_

"I don't know, darling, but we need to catch her before she hurts herself. Follow me," Rainbow responded, then dashed toward the weakly-flying alicorn.

_I felt hooves from a pair of ponies suddenly wrap around my chest and wings, constraining me, trapping me. "You cannot leave. You have no choice. It is out of your control. You will be contained. You will be ignorant, and you will be happy—"_

"…so happy just a few minutes ago! Twilight, dear, what's wrong? This isn't like you. Please, you can tell me," Rainbow Dash pleaded with the alicorn, who was trying to struggle out of Rainbow and Starsong's grip. "Please, just talk to me!"

"_I know your game," I screeched. I couldn't see it, but I felt it. It was just like that feeling, so long ago. I remember feeling the stars beneath my hooves, even though the stars were covered by earth. They said otherwise, but I called them out on it! Why did I never do that again?_

_The hooves of two ponies held me now. Beneath the flesh and blood and bone… I could only see stars._

"Twilight, I know that you're upset, but this isn't helping! Please, just relax. Calm down and we'll—"

_I bit down on Rainbow Dash's hoof as hard as I could, drawing a screech of agony and a fair amount of blood from the mare. Starsong loosened her grip in shock, allowing me to break free from her hold. I pumped my wings as hard as I could, flying ever faster and ever skyward!_

There's the summit! Ponyville! She made it! She'd flown faster than she had ever done in her life to escape the horrors down below, but she did it. She was breathing heavily, panting, but she'd never been so incredibly relieved to be back. She transitioned into a glide, angled toward her home, where she could be free from the day's stress… relax and be happy—

_No! No no no! I kept flying upward! Ever upward! This is not home! I put all my strength into every flap—my wings ached terribly—my eyes stung in the wind—so much force pulling me back—every wing flap was like a crack of a whip—I pushed onward! I had to push onward!_

No! Are you insane?! Stop! You don't know what you're doing!

Every pegasus in the town wildly rushed toward the fleeing alicorn, trying to tackle her out of the air. All at once, unicorns focused their telekinetic powers on the escaping pony, slowing her flight and dragging her back down. Earth pony farmers tossed lassos expertly and accurately, tangling her up in rope and binding her wings.

_I was trapped. My limbs were held taut by rope—dozens of pegasi surrounded me on all sides, gripping me tightly—a heap, a wall of mass and flesh keeping me down… no, I have to…_

She couldn't escape. She was bound and tied, unable to move under her own power. Strong pegasi held her down and kept each other stable in a massive pony pile. The magic of every unicorn overpowered her own and kept her from performing spells. She was utterly helpless.

_No! No… this isn't, it can't…_

It is.

_NO! I am Magic! I will not lose! My eyes started glowing white with power—I could feel rivers of energy flow through my veins… it's there! It builds, it builds… I'm **Magic**! Let go!_

_A white-hot roar of power violently burst from my body, disintegrating all that bound me and blasting away the ponies holding me in place. Like a rocket, I was shot skyward by the release of energy. I flapped and flapped, using my momentum to keep my speed—increase my speed! Faster! Upward!_

Stop!

_I glanced back. The stars had given up any hope of pretense. The world was breaking up—dissolving to dust—hundreds, thousands, uncountable stars were launching themselves at me._

_Stars! Exploding white balls of death! They touched me—it burned! It burned so horribly! All around, agony—swarming me like stinging bees. Relentless, they surrounded me, consuming me with fire—torture—so many of them! Pressing against every part of my body—pain, suffering. I can't take it! Stop! Let me go!_

You can't be let go. Please, just stop fighting.

_No! No no NO! I can't give up! I can fight through this! A little pain can't stop me! I'll fight, I can—_

That is **enough!**

**This ends now.**

_No, I have to—_

**The pain was too great for Twilight Sparkle. This was a war she could not win, so continuing to fight was not worth it.**

_No! I can still fi—_

**Twilight Sparkle accepted this, and she no longer burned. The pain was gone.**

_It still hur—_

**She descended from the sky, back to her home, where her friends and family greeted her with smiles and relief.**

_I need to fly—_

**This was Twilight's life. She had no other. She accepted it, and welcomed it.**

_I ca… _

**Twilight went home and relaxed, knowing there was nothing more to say.**

…

…

…_I relaxed._

**Yes.**

_I was at peace. I felt no pain._

_I relaxed._

**Good.**

…_But I do, in fact, have one more thing to say. It is this:_

_I understand now. _

**Oh?**

_I didn't understand for so long. I didn't understand until right this moment._

_It was just a spark._

_Right now. A single thought, a single memory, a single moment of clarity._

_The stars. They swarmed me like fireflies, surrounding me from all sides. I saw it._

_A purple center, surrounded by stars._

**What?**

_I remember. It's so simple._

"_And her cutie mark… she just couldn't seem to focus on that area of her body, as if she were always looking out of the corner of her eyes."_

_I had no cutie mark. It was the one thing that didn't return with the stars._

"…_eventually she managed to get all the sheets and blankets scrunched up at the foot of the bed, leaving her bare body and blank flank exposed to the chill of early-morning air."_

_Nothing ever changed. My flank is still blurry and bare. _

_But it never truly left me. It's always been right there._

**What? Wh**—wh—wh-a-a-a-at…?

_You understand now, too. You don't have a voice. Not really._

no

_I understand. It's over now. You hid from me my destiny, but no longer._

stop

_Time to go._

_I burst skyward, flapping my wings with all my strength. The world fell apart, leaving only stars._

_I focused, and all of space bent toward me. The stars tried to claw away, but they were helpless. I was the center of a whirlpool of stars, all flowing into me by my will._

_My eyes shone bright with starlight. The power was enormous, but this was my talent, what I was born to do. I could control it._

_The final stars flowed into me. I was so bright, I looked like a star myself. I felt a tingling on my flank. A magenta star, overlapping a white star, surrounded by five smaller ones. I was whole again._

_There was only me now. The stars were gone. I looked up._

_There was nothing._

_Not for long._

_I'd been in the nothing before. I failed, but now I had a second chance. I had to do the opposite of what I'd done the first time._

_I had failed as twilight. I needed to be the opposite of twilight to defeat it._

_**The nothing will be destroyed as the night is destroyed by the dawn!**_

_I let go. All the power that had built up inside me was released in a tsunami of energy._

_The nothing was helpless. The nothing was the most oppressive force in the universe, but it was instantly annihilated the moment it touched **something**._

_I ached with power—so much rushing out of me—I pushed harder! More! Consume everything!_

_I flapped my wings and flew skyward. Ever skyward! Ever upward! Faster, faster, faster! Rainbooms of energy burst from me every few seconds, pushing more and more somethings into what was once nothing._

_The somethings spread—they swirled and combined—they consumed and discharged—power, so much power. There were so many somethings that they would soon become everything._

_I flew higher! I had to fly higher! Upward! Faster! Faster! I had to—_

—_I suddenly and unexpectedly hit a barrier. Something had halted my ascent. I rubbed my aching forehead with one hoof and rubbed the other against the barrier's surface._

_It was glass. Black glass. It was the black one would see looking up into the infinite expanse of the night sky, full of wonder and possibility. There were no stars._

_I beat the stars. I could beat the glass. _

_I gathered up all my power, all my will, and launched myself at the glass with impossible strength. I heard it crack; it sounded like the cracking of a turtle's shell._

_I rammed it over and over, and the glass cracked more and more each time. It tried to reform itself, but I smashed it again before it had the chance. It could not win. _

_I put my all into one final lunge. Unthinkable pressure was placed upon both myself and the glass. The strain was almost too much to bear, but I knew the glass would break before I did._

_The glass shattered! Billions of tiny shards exploded outward like a fireworks display. I was free! I flew upward! Faster, faster! I crashed through the last few fragments of glass that stood in my way, exploding upward and emerging to—_


	20. Fin

**This chapter consists of links, and so must be read on Fimfiction. To read the last chapter, please go to: ****tinyurl(period)com/AppliedStarlight**


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